Cite as: 521 U. S. 1 (1997)
Opinion of Thomas, J.
The United States contends that the submerged lands within the Refuge were "expressly retained" when Alaska became a State. Section 5 of the Alaska Statehood Act keeps for the United States "title to all property, real and personal, to which it has title, including public lands." 72 Stat. 340. The various subsections of § 6 of the Statehood Act exclude from that general retention a variety of lands. Section 6(e) provides that federal agencies will "transfe[r] and conve[y]" to Alaska "[a]ll real and personal property of the United States situated in the Territory of Alaska which is specifically used for the sole purpose of conservation and protection of the fisheries and wildlife of Alaska" under three statutes. Ibid. A proviso to § 6(e), however, states that "such transfer shall not include lands withdrawn or otherwise set apart as refuges or reservations for the protection of wildlife." Id., at 341.5
The United States contends that the Refuge was, as of Alaska's statehood, "set apart as [a] refug[e]." This was accomplished, it is argued, by means of an application filed with the Secretary of the Interior in November 1957 by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife "to establish an Arctic Wildlife Range" within certain lands in Alaska's northeastern corner. See Report of Special Master 447, n. 1 (Report)
application for withdrawal of the land within the Refuge included submerged lands. Alaska failed to file an exception to that recommendation, and we have no more occasion to take it up than any of the several other questions on which the Master offered recommendations to which neither party has objected. Because it is not before us, I express no view on the Master's conclusion as to Question 10.
5 The term "lands" employed in § 6(e) is presumably to be read in pari materia with the same term in § 5. Section 5 makes no express mention of submerged lands, so one can inquire whether, under the Submerged Lands Act, § 5 (never mind § 6(e), which, as a proviso to an exception to § 5, cannot outstrip § 5) "expressly retained" submerged lands for the United States. Alaska, in forgoing its right to except to the Master's recommendation as to Question 10, has, I think, given up its opportunity to make any such argument and I will not take it up.
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