Cite as: 523 U. S. 767 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
the Southern District of New York exercised jurisdiction over cases arising out of the detention or deportation of aliens on Ellis Island. During the relevant period there is no evidence that any judge, state or federal, considered the possibility that Ellis Island might be in two States. Nor is there any evidence that any judge, state or federal, ever held that Ellis Island was a part of New Jersey.13
seem vested federal jurisdiction with respect to Ellis Island in the District Courts of the two named New York districts. But the relator, showing that by the Act of June 28, 1834 (4 Stat. 708) a boundary line between the states of New York and New Jersey had been run down the Hudson River to the sea, 'submitted' that Ellis Island is on the westerly or New Jersey side of the harbor and therefore is in—or 'not entirely' outside—the District of New Jersey and within at least 'the concurrent jurisdiction of the District Court for the District of New Jersey and the District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.' Jurisdiction is determined by statute, not by geography. The statute expressly, and therefore exclusively, placed federal jurisdiction of Ellis Island in the District Courts of the two named New York districts. The running of a boundary line in 1834 through the waters dividing the states of New York and New Jersey cannot disturb the statutory designation of jurisdiction in 1910.
"Therefore we hold that the judge of the District Court for the District of New Jersey had no power to issue the writ of habeas corpus prayed for in this case, to be executed outside of the territorial jurisdiction of his court." United States ex rel. Belardi v. Day, 50 F. 2d 816, 817 (CA3 1931).
13 In a more recent case, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reached the same conclusion as the Third:
"Ellis Island remains a part of New York by acknowledgment of the government and without objection (except in this case) by New Jersey. It has been a component of New York Congressional, State Senate and Assembly districts for more than one hundred fifty years. As part of New York County, it lies within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 28 U. S. C. § 112, and of New York's first judicial district, N. Y. Const. art. VI, § 6; see Rettig v. John E. Moore Co., 90 Misc. 664, 154 N. Y. S. 124 (N. Y. App. Term 1915) (civil suit for assault committed 'upon government property at Ellis Island'). The government treats the entire area of Ellis Island as part of Manhattan for census purposes and has assigned a New York postal zip code to the Island. Those who have resided on Ellis Island, both before and after the Compact, have been treated as citizens of New York. In order to avoid liability in this case, the government asserts for the first time that certain portions of Ellis Island belong to New
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