CNMI

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN 

MARIANA ISLANDS,

Plaintiff-counter-claim-defendant- No. 03-16556 Appellant, v.  D.C. No.

CV-99-00028-ARM

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, OPINION

Defendant-counter-claimant- Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands Alex R. Munson, Chief District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 2, 2004—Honolulu, Hawaii

Filed February 24, 2005

Before: Robert R. Beezer, Susan P. Graber, and Jay S. Bybee, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Beezer COUNSEL

James D. Livingstone, Assistant Attorney General, Saipan, MP, for the plaintiff-counter-claim-defendant/appellant.

David C. Shilton, United States Department of Justice, Wash- ington, D.C., for the defendant-counter-claimant/appellee.

OPINION

BEEZER, Circuit Judge:

This appeal addresses ownership rights to the submerged lands off the shores of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands [hereinafter “CNMI” or “Commonwealth”]. The CNMI filed this quiet title action against…