Northern Mariana Islands v. United States

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 the United States, requesting declaratory and injunctive relief to establish the CNMI as the owner of the submerged lands underlying the “internal,” “archipelagic,” and “territorial” waters adjacent to the Commonwealth. The United States counterclaimed on the title dispute and further sought a judgment decreeing two laws passed by the CNMI legislature to be unenforceable assertions of the Commonwealth’s ownership of the submerged lands.

The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the United States. The CNMI now appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.

I

The CNMI is a commonwealth government comprised of sixteen islands in the West Pacific. 1 Through a Covenant agreement with the United States, the CNMI is under the sovereignty of the United States but retains the “right of local self-government.” Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America §§ 101, 103,…