## Facts

- Triumph and Long Reefs were submerged coral reefs on the United States’ continental shelf, located in international waters about 4.5 miles off the southeast coast of Florida.
- Louis M. Ray and Acme General Contractors, Inc. began developing the reefs by building caissons, dredging seabed material, and depositing fill within the caissons.
- The United States alleged the construction caused irreparable injury to the reefs and interfered with federal rights and control over the outer continental shelf.
- Ray’s stated aim was to create a new sovereign entity (“Grand Capri Republic”) on the reefs; an intervenor asserted a competing “nation” project (“Atlantis”).
- The government sought injunctive relief under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), 43 U.S.C. § 1331 et seq., and related authorization requirements, including 33 U.S.C. § 403 and 43 U.S.C. § 1333(f).
- The district court issued a preliminary injunction and later a permanent injunction against Ray, Acme, and the intervenor.

## Issues

1. Whether submerged reefs on the outer continental shelf, outside the territorial sea, are subject to U.S. rights and control sufficient to support injunctive relief against private occupation and construction.
2. Whether defendants’ caisson-building, dredging, and filling could lawfully proceed without authorization required by federal permitting statutes applicable to the outer continental shelf.
3. Whether the district court properly applied federal law and properly fashioned permanent injunctive relief.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part.
- The court held the United States has exclusive rights and control over the outer continental shelf (including submerged reefs such as Triumph and Long Reefs) sufficient to bar private “nation-building” and construction inconsistent with federal authority.
- The court upheld injunctive relief based on the absence of required federal authorization for the defendants’ construction-related activities.
- The court modified aspects of the judgment on appeal but left intact the essential permanent injunction preventing further unpermitted development and purported assertions of sovereignty on the reefs.

## Legal Principles

- Under OCSLA and related international-law concepts incorporated into federal policy, the United States has exclusive sovereign rights and regulatory authority over the seabed and subsoil of its outer continental shelf and structures and activities associated with it.
- Private parties may be enjoined from occupying, constructing on, or altering outer continental shelf features when such conduct constitutes a trespass or interferes with federal rights and control.
- Construction and dredge/fill activities affecting outer continental shelf areas require compliance with applicable federal authorization and permitting regimes, including 33 U.S.C. § 403 and OCSLA provisions such as 43 U.S.C. § 1333(f).
- Federal courts may issue permanent injunctive relief to prevent ongoing or threatened irreparable injury to outer continental shelf resources and to enforce federal statutory and sovereign interests.

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit concluded that submerged reefs on the United States’ outer continental shelf are subject to federal control and that unpermitted dredging and construction there may be enjoined; private attempts to create new sovereign entities on such reefs have no legal effect against the United States’ rights and regulatory authority.


United States v. Ray, 423 F.2d 16 (5th Cir. 1970)