## Facts

- The dispute concerned land along the Mobile River in Alabama that was below the high-water mark and under navigable waters when Alabama entered the Union.
- After Alabama’s admission, the United States issued a federal land patent (1836) to Pollard’s heirs purporting to convey the submerged land.
- Defendants claimed the land belonged to Alabama by virtue of state sovereignty over navigable waters and their beds upon admission on an equal footing with the original states.
- In an ejectment action, the trial court instructed that if the land was below high-water mark at statehood, the United States lacked power to grant it; the jury found for defendants.
- The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed, and the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court on writ of error.

## Issues

1. Whether, upon admission to the Union, Alabama acquired title and sovereign authority over soils under navigable waters within its boundaries on the same footing as the original states.
2. Whether the United States retained authority after Alabama’s admission to convey, by federal patent, land lying below the high-water mark under navigable waters within the state.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for defendants.
- Upon statehood, Alabama obtained the same rights of sovereignty, jurisdiction, and title in the beds of navigable waters as the original states.
- The United States could not, after Alabama’s admission, convey land below the high-water mark of navigable waters within the state; the 1836 federal patent was void to that extent.
- The admission-act provision declaring navigable waters “public highways” was read as protecting navigation, not as transferring proprietary title or enlarging federal power over such waters beyond constitutional limits.

## Legal Principles

- Under the equal footing doctrine, a new state enters the Union with the same sovereign rights as the original states, including title to beds and shores of navigable waters within its borders (subject to public uses).
- The federal property power over “public lands” does not include a post-statehood power to dispose of submerged lands under navigable waters that are reserved to the states as incidents of sovereignty.
- Federal territorial control before statehood is temporary and held to effectuate the formation and admission of new states; upon admission, sovereign interests in navigable waters and their beds vest in the state.
- Clauses in admission legislation preserving navigable waters as public highways secure free navigation and do not divest or diminish state title to submerged lands.
- The United States does not acquire monarchical prerogatives to grant submerged lands merely by succeeding to prior foreign sovereigns; federal authority remains limited by the constitutional structure.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Alabama, upon admission, took title to and sovereign control over the beds of navigable waters within its boundaries, so the United States lacked power to patent land below the high-water mark after statehood and the federal patent to Pollard’s heirs was invalid as against Alabama-derived claims.


Pollard’s Lessee v. Hagan, 44 U.S. (3 How.) 212 (1845)