United States v. Louisiana, 394 U.S. 1 (1969)

394 U.S.
1
89 S.Ct. 768
22 L.Ed.2d 36
UNITED STATES, Plaintiff,

v.
LOUISIANA et al. The TEXAS BOUNDARY CASE.
No. 9, Orig.
Argued Nov. 18, 1968.
Decided March 3, 1969.
Louis F. Claiborne, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff.

Houghton Brownlee, Jr., for defendants.
Mr. Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
This proceeding is a sequel to last Term's United States v. Louisiana, 389 U.S.
155, 88 S.Ct. 367, 19 L.Ed.2d o83 (1967), in which we held that the threeleague (nine-mile) belt of submerged lands beneath the Gulf of Mexico granted
to Texas by the Submerged Lands Act of 19531 was not to be measured from
the edge of artificial jetties built in the Gulf by Texas since 1845 but from
Texas' coastline as it existed in 1845 when Texas was admitted to the Union.
The cartographic work required to define the 1845 coastline and the gulfward
boundary three leagues distant has been completed, and the United States and
Texas have agreed upon their locations.2 However, the 1845 coastline has been
substantially modified by extensive erosion and some accretion in the
intervening period of more than a century. This modification has occasioned a
dispute between the United States and Texas as to whether the Act's express
limitation in 2(b), that in no event shall the boundaries of the grant of
submerged lands 'be interpreted as extending from the coast line * * * more
than three marine leagues into the Gulf of Mexico,' is to be read as measuring
from the 1845 coastline, as Texas contends, or from the coastline as it exists
currently or at any time in the future, as the United States contends.3 If the
limitation is read as measuring from the modern, ambulatory coastline, Texas
claims that it would be denied substantial submerged acreage as a result of
post-1845 erosion.4 We ordered oral argument. 393 U.S. 811, 89 S.Ct. 79, 21
L.Ed.2d 87 (1968). We agree with the United States that the term 'coast line'
means the modern, ambulatory coastline.
2
The term 'coast line' also appears in 4 of the Submerged Lands Act. Section 4
approves a seaward boundary three miles distant from the 'coast line' of each
coastal State, except that if a State can show that its boundary as it existed at
the time of entry into the Union or as approved by Congress extended into the
Gulf of Mexico more than three miles from the coastline, that State is entitled
to claim the submerged lands within such boundary, subject however to the
express limitation of 2(b). See 2 and 4, 67 Stat. 29, 31, 43 U.S.C. 1301,
1312; United States v. Louisiana, 363 U.S. 1, 80 S.Ct. 961, 4 L.Ed.2d 1025
(1960).
The argument of the United States that 'coast line' means the modern
ambulatory coastline is based on our decision in United States v. California,
381 U.S. 139, 85 S.Ct. 1401, 14 L.Ed.2d 296 (1965). The issue there was
whether particular bodies of water on the California coast were 'inland waters'
within the meaning of 2(c) which provides that '(t)he term 'coast line' means
the line * * * marking the seaward limit of inland waters.' We held that the
legislative history showed that Congress intended that the courts should define
the term 'inland waters.' In discharging that assignment we concluded that the
Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone5 provided 'the best
and most workable definitions available.' Accordingly, we adopted those
definitions for purposes of the Submerged Lands Act. 381 U.S., at 165, 85
S.Ct., at 1415. The Convention defines 'coast line' as the modern, ambulatory
coastline; the decree entered several months later in accordance with our
opinion in California expressly provides that '(t)he coast line is to be taken as
heretofore or hereafter modified by natural or artificial means * * *.' 382 U.S.
448, 449, 86 S.Ct. 607, 15 L.Ed.2d 517 (1966).
We said further in California that '(t)his (adoption of the Convention's

definitions) establishes a single coastline for * * * the administration of the
Submerged Lands Act * * *.' 381 U.S. at 165, 85 S.Ct., at 1415. Our conclusion
in this case that 'coast line' means the modern, ambulatory coastline therefore
necessarily follows from our decision in California. See United States v.
Louisiana, supra, 389 U.S., at 162, n. 2, 88 S.Ct. at 371 (Stewart, J., concurring
in result). There is no basis for a finding that 'coast line' has a different meaning
for the purpose of determining the baseline for measurement of the three-league
maximum limitation. Nothing on the face of the Act or in its legislative history
supports a different meaning.6 Rather it seems evident that Congress meant that
the same 'coast line' should be the baseline of both the three-mile grant and the
three-league limitation. Texas suggests no ground for a distinction but argues
that measurement from the modern, ambulatory coastline would produce an

inequitable result and work havoc with orderly mineral development. It is true
that last Term's decision that the three-league belt should be measured from the
1845 coastline and not from the edge of subsequently constructed artificial
jetties deprived Texas of the benefit of ost-1845 accretion. It is also true that
the use of the modern, ambulatory coastline as the baseline from which the
limitation is measured will penalize Texas for post-1845 erosion and may
present practical difficulties for mineral lessees. But any alleged inequitable
results, as well as any alleged detriment to orderly mineral development, derive
from a consistent reading of the scheme Congress fashioned; thus Texas must
look to Congress for relief.
5
Since the parties have agreed that the decree proposed by the United States
should be entered if its view on the disputed point is sustained, we direct the
entry of the supplemental decree proposed by the United States. 7
It is so ordered.
Supplemental decree proposed by United States entered (see 89 S.Ct. 1614).
THE CHIEF JUSTICE and Mr. Justice MARSHALL took no part in the
consideration or decision of this case.
Mr. Justice BLACK, dissenting.
10
I would decide this case in favor of Texas. It is another of a long-continued and

apparently never-ending series of lawsuits between the United States and
Texas, trying to settle the location of the boundaries of lands submerged under
ocean and Gulf waters that Congress, in 1953, validly conveyed to the States in
the Submerged Lands Act. 1 The dispute is a narrow one. This Court held in
United States v. Louisiana, 363 U.S. 1, 80 S.Ct. 961, 4 L.Ed.2d 1025 (1960),
that the United States had in the Submerged Lands Act conveyed to Texas
submerged lands out into the Gulf for a distance of three leagues, about nine
miles, from the State's coastline. And we held in United States v. Louisiana
(Texas boundaries), 389 U.S. 155, 161, 88 S.Ct. 367, 370, 19 L.Ed.2d 383
(1967), that 'the congressional grant to Texas of three marine leagues of
submerged land is measured by the historical state boundaries 'as they existed'
in 1845 when Texas was admitted into the Union.' That case, however, did not
attempt to identify with precision where the coastline was located, but that
question is no longer in dispute for here the parties have stipulated the location
of the seaward boundary of Texas when it was admitted into the Union. In that
same case we rejected arguments that we should follow the second california
case, United States v. California, 381 U.S. 139, 85 S.Ct. 1401, 14 L.Ed.2d 296
(1965), in holding that a dispute over the state and national submerged
boundary line should be decided by international law and treaties. In declining
to apply the same treaty in the United States and Texas dispute, we said, 'This
is a domestic dispute, which must be governed by the congressional grant,' 389
U.S., at 161, 88 S.Ct., at 370, and thereby rejected the idea that the question
was controlled by international law or treaty. Obviously, the same principle
equally applies here, in this further phase of the very same submerged land
dispute. No one of the international family of nations is greatly interested and
certainly none can control the way in which another nation divides itself into
subordinate governmental units for control of that country's own inland waters.
That is a problem for each nation to decide for itself.
11
Moreover, I pointed out in my dissent to the Court's holding on the counter

motions in the Louisiana Boundary Case decided today, reasons why the
second California case should not be held to establish a uniform rule for
deciding all controversies concerning disputed questions of submerged land
boundaries arisi g out of the Submerged Lands Act, 394 U.S., p. 78, 89 S.Ct., p.
812. This case now before us concerning the Texas boundary again refutes any
idea that applying treaties and international law to settle such local disputes
between the Federal Government and a State will bring about stability,
certainty, or expedition in carrying out the will of Congress. For here we are
told that even if the United States wins, it will probably take a very long time to
decide this controversy under the complexities of measurement necessary in
accordance with the international trety rules.2 We are warned also that another
boundary lawsuit between State and Nation is already brewing with a second
just around the corner from it. Consolation is also offered because we are told
that we can continue in case after case to keep our decrees open for future
lawsuits. All of this goes to emphasize to me that it has been a mistake for this
Court to advance the view that these land boundaries should be settled by
courts. Obviously, the best way to settle a boundary dispute, whether water or
land, is to designate a governmental agency that can undertake the complex
problem of determining and marking where the inland and territorial waters
meet. As I have pointed out in my dissent in the Louisiana Boundary Case,
decided today, Congress in 1895 passed an Act specifically charging a
competent government department to consider and mark such a line.3 If the
Court is willing to stay its hand and let this congressionally selected agency
identify the inland water-outer sea line in future cases in accordance with this
Act of Congress, we may hopefully look forward to having the courts relieved
of this nonjudicial duty. I believe experience proves, however, that the effort of
Congress to straighten out this muddle and give the submerged lands to the
States is destined to a long, slow, almost endless delay, if the problem continues
to be left to this Court.
12
The effect of the Court's holding today is that where the process of accretion is
building up new land along the shores, the boundaries Texas may claim are not
extended because, as we held last Term, they remain irrevocably fixed by the
1845 line, but as erosion gradually pushes back the present coastline at other
points along the shore, the outer limit of the submerged lands owned by Texas
is also pushed back toward shore. This argument of the United States, accepted
today by the Court, truly deserves the ironic tribute by counsel for Texas in oral
argument that it works for the United States precisely as the old game of 'heads
I win, tails you lose.' Moreover, the Court admits that if the United States wins,
the boundary between state and federal lands will be an ambulatory one, with
oil leases by the State constantly subject to invalidation as erosion takes its toll
on the land along the shore. The Court says that these inequitable results 'd rive
from * * * the scheme Congress fashioned.' Ante, at 6. I think those inequities
rather result from the interpretation this Court has given the Act, chiefly by
saying that Congress intended to give the task of marking submerged land to
judges rather than to surveyors, and by holding further that the task should be
handled by reference to international treaties. The uncertainty and confusion
created for those who accept oil leases from the State, and the unfairness of the
one-sided rule under which only Texas can lose by future natural changes in the
shoreline, can be eliminated by simply construing 'coast line' in 2(b) of the
Act to have the same natural meaning we attributed to that phrase only last
Term, namely the historic coastline 'as it existed' when Texas was admitted to
the Union. And secondly, in future cases, all these problems and inequities
could be simply avoided by choosing to follow the Coast Guard line, marked
out as authorized by Act of Congress.
13
I dissent from the Court's acceptance of the proposed United States decree and
would approve the decree of Texas.
67 Stat. 29, 43 U.S.C. 13011315. In United States v. Louisiana, 363 U.S.

1, 84, 80 S.Ct. 961, 1007, 4 L.Ed.2d 1025 (1960), we held that the Act entitled
Texas, as against the United States, to the submerged lands underlying the Gulf
of Mexico to a distance of three marine leagues from Texas' 'coast line.' We
expressly reserved the question of what is the 'coast line' from which to
measure this three-league grant. 363 U.S., at 79, 80 S.Ct., at 1004. See also 389
U.S., at 156157 and n. 1, 88 S.Ct., at 368.
A Stipulation filed with the Court identifies Texas' 1845/1849 coastline and
also its gulfward boundry three leagues distant. An Act of November 24, 1849,
Laws, 3d Tex.Leg., c. 2, p. 4, adopted with the consent of Congress, Act of July
5, 1848, 9 Stat. 245, extended Texas' boundry opposite Sabine Pass. The United
States has accepted Texas' three-league boundary opposite the western half of
Sabine Pass, not as a boundary as it existed when the State came into the Union
in 1845, but as one approved by Congress before passage of the Submerged
Lands Act, and as such equally entitled to recognition under 2(b). The line
identified in the Stipulation as the line to be recognized as Texas' historic
offshore boundary includes the 1849 extension, but the United States reserves
the effectiveness of that extension as against other claims, for example, any that
might be asserted by Louisiana. See Memorandum of United States 1618.
3
Section 2, 43 U.S.C. 1301, so far as relevant here, is as follows:

'(a) The term 'lands beneath navigable waters' means
'(2) all lands permanently or periodically covered by tidal waters up to but not
above the line of mean high tide and seaward to a line three geographical miles
distant from the coast line of each such State and to the boundary line of each
such State where in any case such boundary as it existed at the time such State
became a member of the Union, or as heretofore approved by Congress,
extends seaward (or into the Gulf of Mexico) beyond three geographical miles,
'(b) The term 'boundaries' includes the seaward boundaries of a State or its boun
aries in the Gulf of Mexico or any of the Great Lakes as they existed at the time
such State became a member of the Union, or as heretofore approved by the
Congress, or as extended or confirmed pursuant to section 4 hereof but in no
event shall the term 'boundaries' or the term 'lands beneath navigable waters' be
interpreted as extending from the coast line more than three geographical miles
into the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, or more than three marine leagues
into the Gulf of Mexico;
'(c) The term 'coast line' means the line of ordinary low water along that portion
of the coast which is in direct contact with the open sea and the line marking
the seaward limit of inland waters.'
It was represented on oral argument that between 17,000 and 35,000 acres
would be lost to Texas as a result of such erosion.
(1964) 15 U.S.T. (pt. 2) 1607, T.I.A.S. No. 5639.
Our decision in California also forecloses any argument that the term 'coast
line' means the coastline as it existed at the date of passage of the Submerged
Lands Act.
Although the three-mile minimum grant measured from the modern coastline
has no present application in the case of Texas, the decree includes provisions
to cover the situation which would exist if accretion or artificial construction
should at some future time extend the coastline more than six miles beyond the
18451849 position.
67 Stat. 29, 43 U.S.C. 13011315.
The United States describes the way in which the measurements will have to be
taken as follows:
'This work is done by photogrammetrythat is, by aerial photographs taken
when the sea is exactly at the level of mean low tide. These are then correlated
with maps by use of control points, and the water line shown on the
photographs is transferred to the maps. There are only limited times when the
tide reaches the proper stage while there is suitable daylight for such
photography and there is no offshore of onshore wind to dislocate the water
line. When the necessary conditions do concur, the tide stage lasts only a few
minutes. Thus, photography of an extensive coast such as that of Texas may be
a protracted operation. Subsequent cartography requires skilled and painstaking
work that cannot be done hurriedly or by mass production methods.'
Memorandum in Support of Proposed Decree, July 15, 1968, p. 28, n. 13.
28 Stat. 672, 33 U.S.C. 151. Congress first entrusted this duty to the Treasury
Department, later to the Commerce Department, and later to the Commandant
of the Coast Guard.

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394 U.S.

UNITED STATES, Plaintiff,

Louis F. Claiborne, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff.

We said further in California that '(t)his (adoption of the Convention's

that measurement from the modern, ambulatory coastline would produce an

Supplemental decree proposed by United States entered (see 89 S.Ct. 1614).

Mr. Justice BLACK, dissenting.

I would decide this case in favor of Texas. It is another of a long-continued and

Moreover, I pointed out in my dissent to the Court's holding on the counter

67 Stat. 29, 43 U.S.C. 13011315. In United States v. Louisiana, 363 U.S.

Section 2, 43 U.S.C. 1301, so far as relevant here, is as follows:

(1964) 15 U.S.T. (pt. 2) 1607, T.I.A.S. No. 5639.

67 Stat. 29, 43 U.S.C. 13011315.

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