00-189 Idaho v. United States, et al.

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“Congress undertook to negotiate with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe for reduction in the territory of an Executive Order reservation that Idaho concedes included the submerged lands at issue here. Congress was aware that the submerged lands were included and clearly intended to redefine the area of the reservation that covered them only by consensual transfer, in exchange for the guarantee that the Tribe would retain the remainder. There is no indication that Congress ever modified its objective of negotiated consensual transfer, which would have been defeated if Congress had let parts of the reservation pass to the State before the agreements with the Tribe were final. Any imputation to Congress either of bad faith or of secrecy in dropping its express objective of consensual dealing with the Tribe is at odds with the evidence. We therefore think the negotiating history, not to mention subsequent events, ‘ma[k]e [it] very plain,’ Holt State Bank, 270 U. S., at 55, that Congress recognized the full extent of the Executive Order reservation lying within the stated boundaries it ultimately confirmed, and intended to bar passage to Idaho of title to the submerged lands at issue here.”

Affirmed.

Local Effect:

The issue has not previously been considered by the Seventh Circuit.

Souter, J.; Rehnquist, C.J., dissenting.

Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 210 F.3d 1067.