## Facts

- The United States filed an original-jurisdiction action against Maine and twelve other Atlantic coastal states seeking a declaration of sovereign rights over the seabed and subsoil offshore.
- The United States claimed exclusive sovereign rights to the seabed and subsoil more than three geographical miles seaward from the ordinary low-water mark (and seaward of inland waters) out to the outer edge of the continental shelf, for resource exploration and exploitation.
- The defendant states denied federal exclusivity and asserted that they held ownership or sovereign control in the contested offshore areas beyond the traditional three-mile belt.
- Several states, including Maine, relied on colonial-era charters and historical claims of title to argue for state rights beyond three miles.
- The Supreme Court appointed a Special Master to take evidence and recommend findings; the United States supported the Special Master’s report, while the states filed extensive exceptions.
- The case reached the Court on the states’ exceptions to the Special Master’s report concerning sovereign rights to offshore submerged lands.

## Issues

1. Whether the United States, as against the Atlantic coastal states, holds paramount sovereign rights to the seabed and subsoil more than three geographical miles offshore, extending to the outer edge of the continental shelf, for natural resource exploration and exploitation.
2. Whether the Submerged Lands Act of 1953 or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 transferred or recognized state rights in the contested offshore area beyond three miles.
3. Whether colonial-era charters or historical title claims can establish state sovereign rights to offshore submerged lands beyond the states’ coastal belt.

## Decision

- The Court held that the United States, to the exclusion of the defendant states, possesses sovereign rights over the seabed and subsoil more than three geographical miles seaward from the ordinary low-water mark (and seaward of inland waters) out to the outer edge of the continental shelf.
- The Court overruled the states’ exceptions to the Special Master’s report on the central sovereignty question and directed entry of judgment consistent with the declaration of federal rights.
- The Court treated prior offshore-submerged-lands precedents as controlling and rejected the states’ broader claims of offshore ownership or sovereignty.
- The Court concluded that the 1953 statutes confirmed, rather than displaced, federal paramount rights beyond the states’ submerged-lands limits.
- Justice Douglas did not participate; the result favored the United States.

## Legal Principles

- Paramount sovereign rights to offshore seabed and subsoil beyond the states’ coastal belt belong to the federal government as an incident of national sovereignty.
- The Submerged Lands Act generally recognizes state rights to submerged lands within three geographical miles of the coast (subject to defined exceptions), but does not extend state sovereignty beyond that limit.
- The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act confirms federal jurisdiction, control, and power over submerged lands seaward of state submerged lands, providing a federal framework for resource development on the outer continental shelf.
- State reliance on colonial charters and historical title does not override the constitutional allocation of external sovereignty and offshore resource control to the national government.
- In original-jurisdiction boundary and sovereignty disputes, the Court may appoint a Special Master and will resolve exceptions by applying controlling constitutional and statutory rules to the Master’s findings and conclusions.

## Conclusion

The Court declared that sovereign rights to the Atlantic seabed and subsoil beyond three geographical miles from the coast, extending to the outer edge of the continental shelf, reside exclusively in the United States, and it rejected Atlantic coastal states’ statutory and historical-title arguments for offshore sovereignty beyond their submerged-lands limits.


United States v. Maine, 420 U.S. 515 (1975)