United States v. Louisiana
Headline: Court defines detailed offshore boundary off Texas, awarding submerged lands and resources landward to Texas while assigning seaward areas to the United States, clarifying control over Gulf of Mexico minerals.
Holding:
- Clarifies which government owns offshore lands and resources in the Gulf off Texas.
- Determines who may grant leases and collect revenues from submerged resources.
- Leaves open further orders because the Court retains jurisdiction.
Summary
Background
This supplemental decree arises from earlier final and supplemental decrees addressing ownership of lands, minerals, and other natural resources under the Gulf of Mexico between the United States and several states, including Texas. The Court described Texas’s 1845 coastline in a prior supplemental decree and now identifies with greater particularity the federal–state boundary between submerged lands off Texas. The decree specifies the line by detailed plane coordinates and map references in the Texas Coordinate Systems using the North American Datum of 1927. The opinion follows the Court’s December 12, 1960 final decree and its May 5, 1969 supplemental decree in United States v. Louisiana.
Reasoning
The Court’s core task was to locate the precise offshore boundary that separates submerged lands belonging to Texas from those belonging to the United States. The Court held that, as against the United States (subject to exceptions in the Submerged Lands Act), Texas is entitled to all lands, minerals, and natural resources lying landward of the described line, and that the United States is entitled to those seaward of that line. The decree lists coordinate points, arc centers, and straight-line descriptions, and it identifies plane coordinates in the Texas South Zone and South Central Zone referenced to NAD 27.
Real world impact
The decree settles which government controls specific areas of the Gulf floor and the resources beneath them, affecting who may exercise property and resource rights, issue leases, and regulate mineral development in those zones. The Court retains jurisdiction to enter further orders or issue writs to give the decree proper force and effect, so this ruling can be supplemented or enforced by later proceedings.
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