Cite as: 523 U. S. 767 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
responded that "Article 2 of [the 1834 Compact] seems to indicate clearly that New York has jurisdiction over Ellis Island." N. J. Exh. 52. The union local and Norton protested this decision, arguing that Solicitor Wyzanski was correct and calling attention to New Jersey's 1933 permit to the United States for work on the Island's seawall, as well as the 1904 deed from New Jersey to the United States conveying title to the submerged lands. The Procurement Division, again erroneously citing Article Second of the Compact, refused to budge.
The record does not reveal whether the Compact was ever brought to the notice of the Department of Labor, but if it was it made an impression markedly different from its effect on the Treasury. For in the 1940's, the Secretary of Labor moved from its solicitor's rejection of both States' claims to an acceptance of New Jersey's, issuing several decisions in the 1947-1949 period on proper wage rates for construction projects on the Island, to which he referred as "Ellis Island, New York Harbor, Hudson County, New Jersey." In the same period, the Department of Labor expressly ruled that New York building trade wage rates were not applicable to construction on the Island because "Ellis Island [is in] New York Harbor, in Hudson County, New Jersey." In June 1949, the Secretary declared that once again New York wage rates would apply; the Secretary explained only that "additional data and more current information have been assembled."
At the end of the day, or the possible prescription period, the circumstantial evidence of official federal views of Island sovereignty shows no consistent understanding, but simply a grab bag of opinions shifting back and forth between, and within, the agencies of the Government.
5
After reviewing all the evidence New York has presented, we find that with the arguable exception of maintenance of
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