## Facts

- Phillips Petroleum Company held record title to roughly 42 acres of land underlying a bayou and several streams in Mississippi.
- The waters were several miles inland, nonnavigable in fact, but subject to the ebb and flow of the tide due to their connection to a navigable, tidally affected river flowing to the Gulf of Mexico.
- Mississippi issued oil and gas leases covering the submerged lands, asserting sovereign ownership in public trust of all land beneath waters influenced by the tide, whether navigable or not.
- Phillips filed a quiet title action, relying in part on pre-statehood Spanish land grants, and challenged the State’s authority to lease the tracts.

## Issues

1. Under federal law governing state title at statehood, does Mississippi own lands beneath all waters subject to tidal influence, even if nonnavigable in fact, or only lands beneath navigable waters?

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the Mississippi Supreme Court (6–2).
- The Court held that, upon entering the Union, Mississippi obtained title to lands beneath waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, even if those waters are not navigable in fact.
- The lands at issue therefore passed to Mississippi at statehood, and the State could claim sovereign ownership in public trust.

## Legal Principles

- Under the equal-footing doctrine, a State upon statehood takes title, in trust for the public, to lands beneath waters subject to the tide’s influence, including tidally influenced waters that are nonnavigable in fact.
- The extension of public trust and admiralty concepts to navigable fresh waters does not retract the category of tidally influenced waters historically treated as within state sovereign ownership.
- The scope of what passes to a State at statehood is a question of federal law; pre-statehood conveyances defeat state title only if validly made by the United States or a prior sovereign consistent with governing law.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld Mississippi’s sovereign ownership of submerged lands beneath tidally influenced waters, rejecting a navigability-only rule and confirming that tidal influence independently supports state title at statehood under federal law.


Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 484 U.S. 469 (1988)