California v. Arizona

Background

California sought to settle who owns an 11.3-mile stretch of old Colorado Riverbed after the river moved. The river once marked the state line, but a 1966 interstate compact fixed the boundary by coordinates. California’s State Lands Commission studied ownership and claimed the riverbed under the equal-footing rule that gave the state title to lands under navigable waters at the time of admission. Arizona and the United States disputed those conclusions. California asked this Court to hear a quiet-title suit against Arizona and the United States to resolve the competing claims.

Reasoning

The Court considered whether it could hear the case even though Congress in 1972 created a quiet-title statute (section 2409a) and granted exclusive original jurisdiction over such suits against the United States to federal district courts. The Justices avoided deciding a hard constitutional question by reading the law narrowly: Congress intended to keep quiet-title suits out of state courts, not to take away the Supreme Court’s constitutionally granted authority over disputes between states. The Court found that the United States had waived immunity under the statute and that nothing in the law barred the Supreme Court from exercising its original jurisdiction here. The Court therefore granted California leave to file and gave the defendants 45 days to answer.

Real world impact

The decision allows a single high forum to resolve competing claims by two states and the federal government over riverbed land. Ownership, federal land interests, and any compensation questions will now be addressed in this original proceeding. The ruling does not decide title itself; it simply permits the suit to move forward in the Supreme Court.