Cite as: 523 U. S. 767 (1998)
Syllabus
that the filled portions belong to New York; and the United States's understanding of the Island's sovereignty—is too slight to support any finding of prescription. New York's official acts occurred off the Island and were either equivocal in their territorial references or ill calculated to give notice to New Jersey; and they did not leave officials of the Island's actual occupants, the United States, with a settled or consistent understanding that the filled land might be subject to New York's sovereignty. Pp. 785-806.
(c) New Jersey is not chargeable with laches through its delay in bringing this action. Even if New York is correct that there would have been more and better evidence to support its affirmative defense of prescription and acquiescence had New Jersey brought its suit years earlier, it cannot use the defense of laches to relieve it of the plaintiff's burden of proof on its affirmative defense. Pp. 806-807.
(d) New Jersey is sovereign over the filled portions of the Island to the mean low-water line, not, as it argues, the mean high-water line. The Court assumes from the Compact's silence that the parties were well aware of the general rule, recognized by this Court, that the low-water mark is the most appropriate boundary between sovereigns, see, e. g., Handly's Lessee v. Anthony, 5 Wheat. 374, 383, and would have explicitly provided for a high-water mark boundary if that is what they intended. It would be unsound to infer from Article Third's specification of a low-water mark as a jurisdictional boundary on the New Jersey shore that the high-water line was intended elsewhere. Pp. 807-810.
(e) This Court agrees with the Special Master's conclusion that the land covered by the pier in 1834 falls within New York's authority. An 1819 map of the Island, on which the Special Master relied, appears to show a filled area around the pier's location, and New York's expert credibly testified that the use of pilings to create piers was still uncommon by the mid-1800's and that it would have been much easier to add landfill to the shallow waters around the Island than build piers. P. 810. (f) This Court lacks the authority to adjust the original boundary line between the two States to address considerations of practicality and convenience. Congressional approval "transforms an interstate compact within [the Compact] Clause into a law of the United States," Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U. S. 433, 438. Unless the compact is unconstitutional, no court may order relief inconsistent with its express terms. Texas v. New Mexico, 462 U. S. 554, 564. The difficulties created by a boundary line that divides not just an island but some of its buildings are the price of New Jersey's success in litigating under a compact whose fair construction calls for a line so definite. Pp. 810-812.
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