State of Alaska Petition and Appendix
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No. 13-___ In the Supreme Court of the United States STATE OF ALASKA, Petitioner, v. SALLY JEWELL, SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ET AL., Respondents. ON PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI MICHAEL C. GERAGHTY GREGORY G. GARRE Attorney General Counsel of Record MICHAEL G. MITCHELL KATHERINE I. TWOMEY Senior Assistant KATYA S. CRONIN Attorney General LATHAM & WATKINS LLP STATE OF ALASKA 555 11th Street, NW Department of Law Suite 1000 1031 W. 4th Avenue Washington, DC 20004 Suite 2000 (202) 637-2207 Anchorage, AK 99501 [email protected] Counsel for Petitioner i QUESTIONS PRESENTED The State of Alaska, like all States, enjoys the sovereign “right to control and regulate navigable streams within [her borders],” Coyle v. Smith, 221 U.S. 559, 573 (1911), and to manage fish and game along those waters, United States v. Alaska, 521 U.S. 1, 5-6 (1997). In the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), 16 U.S.C. § 3101 et seq., Congress gave rural Alaskans a priority over other residents for the “taking on public lands of fish and wildlife” for subsistence uses. Id. § 3114. “[P]ublic lands” are “[f]ederal lands”—i.e., “lands, waters, and interests therein”—“the title to which is in the United States.” Id. § 3102(1)-(3). Although the definition does not mention navigable waters, the Ninth Circuit adopted the government’s litigating position that ANILCA nevertheless covers any navigable waters in which the United States has an interest by virtue of the “reserved water rights doctrine.” In the decision below, the Ninth Circuit applied that framework to uphold a 1999 Rule that transfers from Alaska to the United States authority to control of fishing and hunting along waterways in over half of the State. The questions presented are: 1. Whether the Ninth Circuit properly held—in conflict with this Court’s decisions—that the federal reserved water rights doctrine authorizes the unprecedented federal takeover of Alaska’s navigable waters sanctioned by the 1999 Rule. 2. Whether the Ninth Circuit properly proceeded on the premise—which also conflicts with this Court’s decisions—that ANILCA could be interpreted to federalize navigable waters at all given Congress’s silence on the Act’s application to navigable waters. ii PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDING In this case, petitioner is the State of Alaska. Respondents are: Sally Jewell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who were defendants below; the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Federation and Outdoor Council, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fund, Michael Tinker, and John Conrad, who were plaintiff-intervenors below; Katie John, Charles Erhart, the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, and the Native Village of Tanana, who were defendant- intervenors below; and the Alaska Federation of Natives, which was a defendant-intervenor below. Before the Ninth Circuit, this case was consolidated with another case in which the parties were: Katie John, Charles Erhart, the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, and the Native Village of Tanana, who were plaintiffs; the United States of America, Sally Jewell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who were defendants; and the State of Alaska, which was a defendant-intervenor. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page QUESTIONS PRESENTED ............................................ i PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDING .............................. ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES .......................................... vi OPINIONS BELOW ......................................................... 1 JURISDICTION ................................................................ 1 STATUTORY AND REGULATORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED ..................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................. 1 STATEMENT OF THE CASE ....................................... 4 A. ANILCA And The 1990 Rule ............................ 4 B. Katie John I And Totemoff ................................ 5 C. Katie John II ........................................................ 8 D. 1999 Rule At Issue Here ..................................... 9 E. This Litigation .................................................... 10 REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION ....... 13 I. THE QUESTIONS PRESENTED CUT AT THE HEART OF ALASKA’S SOVEREIGNTY ...................................................... 14 II. THE NINTH CIRCUIT DECISION DIRECTLY CONTRAVENES THIS COURT’S PRECEDENT ON THE FEDERAL RESERVED WATER RIGHTS DOCTRINE IN DEROGATION OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY ...................................................... 17 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page A. This Court’s Precedent Carefully Limits The Federal Reserved Rights Doctrine ......... 17 B. The Ninth Circuit Decision Clearly Conflicts With This Court’s Decisions ............ 20 C. The Ninth Circuit’s Expansion Of The Doctrine Invades State Sovereignty .............. 24 III. THE NINTH CIRCUIT DECISION RESTS ON THE FLAWED PREMISE THAT ANILCA MAY BE INTERPRETED TO REACH NAVIGABLE WATERS AT ALL ....... 25 A. The Ninth Circuit’s Framework Conflicts With This Court’s Precedents .......................... 26 B. Certiorari Is Warranted To Review The Ninth Circuit’s Framework .............................. 30 CONCLUSION ................................................................. 34 APPENDIX Opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Katie John v. United States, 720 F.3d 1214 (9th Cir. 2013) ....................... 1a Order of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, Katie John v. United States, No. 3:05-cv-0006-HRH (D. Alaska May 17, 2007) ............................................................ 65a v TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page Order of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, Katie John v. United States, No. 3:05-cv-0006-HRH (D. Alaska Sept. 29, 2009) .......................................................... 96a 16 U.S.C. § 3102(1)-(3) .................................................. 184a 16 U.S.C. § 3114 ............................................................. 185a 43 U.S.C. § 3111(a) ........................................................ 186a Alaska Statehood Act, Pub. L. No. 85-508, § 6(m), 72 Stat. 339, 343 (1958) ............................. 187a 64 Fed. Reg. 1276 (Jan. 8, 1999) .................................. 188a vi TABLE OF AUTHORITIES Page(s) CASES Alaska v. Babbitt, 72 F.3d 698 (9th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1187 (1996) (Katie John I) ............................ 6, 7, 8, 27 Alaska v. Babbitt, 517 U.S. 1187 (1996) ..................................................... 8 Alaska v. United States, 545 U.S. 75 (2005) ....................................................... 26 Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546 (1963) ......................................... 17, 18, 22 Avondale Irrigation District v. North Idaho Properties, Inc., 577 P.2d 9 (Idaho 1978) ............................................. 24 Cappaert v. United States, 426 U.S. 128 (1976) .................................... 7, 18, 19, 22 Charles v. State, 232 P.3d 739 (Alaska Ct. App. 2010) ....................... 31 Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837 (1984) ....................................................... 6 City of Joliet v. New West, L.P., 562 F.3d 830 (7th Cir. 2009), cert. denied, 559 U.S. 936 (2010) ..................................................................... 29 Coyle v. Smith, 221 U.S. 559 (1911) .......................................... i, 2, 4, 14 vii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 556 U.S. 502 (2009) ..................................................... 29 In re General Adjudication of All Rights to Use Water in the Gila River System & Source, 289 P.3d 936 (Ariz. 2012) ........................................... 24 State ex rel. Greely v. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 712 P.2d 754 (Mont. 1985) ......................................... 24 Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452 (1991) ......................................... 25, 26, 28 Hynes v. Grimes Packing Co., 337 U.S. 86 (1949) ....................................................... 27 Idaho v. Coeur d’Alene Tribe, 521 U.S. 261 (1997) ..................................................... 14 James v. State, 950 P.2d 1130 (Alaska 1997) ..................................... 31 Jones v. State, 936 P.2d 1263 (Alaska Ct. App. 1997) ..................... 31 Katie John v. United States, 247 F.3d 1032 (9th Cir. 2001) (Katie John II) ............................................. 4, 8, 26, 27 McDowell v. Alaska, 785 P.2d 1 (Alaska 1989) ....................................... 5, 15 viii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued Page(s) Metlakatla Indian Community v. Egan, 362 P.2d 901 (Alaska 1961) (Egan I), vacated, 369 U.S. (1962) ................................................................... 15 Metlakatla Indian Community v. Egan, 369 U.S. 45 (1962) (Egan II) ..................................... 15 Miyasoto v. State, No. A-5486, 1996 WL 33686451 (Alaska Ct. App. Mar. 13, 1996) .............................................................. 31 Navajo Dev. Co. v. Sanderson, 655 P.2d 1374 (Colo. 1982) ......................................... 27 Potlatch Corp. v. United States (In re Srba), 12 P.3d 1260 (Idaho 2000) ......................................... 16 Raygor v. Regents of the