814
Stevens, J., dissenting
one cannot reasonably expect New Jersey to have mounted a major protest against New York's assertions of "sovereignty" (modest as they were) over territory that was within the control of the Federal Government. Nor can one expect the immigrants themselves to have taken a particular interest in state boundaries, for most would have thought not in terms of "New York" or "New Jersey," but of a New World that offered them opportunities denied them by the Old. Given this background, any legal rule of "prescription" that found New York to have surmounted its high barrier here would create serious problems of fairness in other cases.
For these reasons, in particular, and others, all spelled out in detail by Justice Souter, I must conclude that the filled portion of Ellis Island belongs not to New York, but to New Jersey. I therefore join the Court's opinion.
Justice Stevens, dissenting.
While I agree with the Court's analysis of the relevant legal issues, I do not agree with its appraisal of the evidence. Because we are in effect sitting as a trial court, and because the relevant evidence is either documentary or uncontradicted oral testimony, we are able to make our own findings of fact and draw appropriate inferences from those findings. In my judgment a preponderance of that evidence supports a finding that all interested parties shared the belief that the filled portions, as well as the original three acres, of Ellis Island were a part of the State of New York for over 60 years. That finding, in turn, supports the conclusion that New York acquired the power to govern the entire Island by prescription.
During the period between 1892 and 1954 Ellis Island served as the Gateway to America for over 12 million immigrants. Thousands of citizens worked on the Island and hundreds resided there during those six decades. There is no evidence that any of those people ever believed that any
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