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Opinion of Thomas, J.
seeking to create wildlife refuges). In my view, then, the Master overstated the effect of the application and regulation when he said that they "caused land to be set apart for the purpose of a wildlife reservation." Report 464 (emphasis added). The effect of the set-apart was to ensure that any decision to create a wildlife refuge—if that were the decision ultimately made—would not be undermined by prior land actions adverse to any such decision. Only if the procedures that intervened between the Bureau's application and the Secretary's decision were merely ministerial, which the Government is wise not to argue, see 43 CFR § 295.12 (1958) (describing procedures), could the set-apart be accurately described as "for the purpose of a wildlife reservation." Thus, it goes without saying that I do not agree with the majority's even more ambitious conclusion that the lands were "set apart as [a] refug[e]." 7
Nor do I agree with the majority's contention that the Master's reading would render the "otherwise set apart" portion of § 6(e) redundant, as only a "completed reservation" of land would prevent that land from passing to Alaska. Ante, at 59. I believe that the proviso in § 6(e) is set forth in broad language in an attempt to capture all ways in which a refuge or reservation for the protection of wildlife can be created—not unlike Congress' attempt in § 3(a) of the Submerged Lands Act to capture every way in which title to submerged lands could be conferred. See supra, at 63. Accordingly, Congress' use of the phrase "lands withdrawn or otherwise set apart" fairly encompasses every way in which lands can be segregated "as refuges or reservations." Re-7 That Alaska has acquiesced in the United States' ownership of the uplands within the boundaries of the Refuge says nothing whatever about Congress' intent in enacting the Alaska Statehood Act. Accordingly, I do not understand the majority's citation to this point. Ante, at 60. Indeed, if Alaska's poststatehood actions are relevant, it must surely be equally relevant that Alaska strenuously disputes ownership of the submerged lands within the Refuge.
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