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Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
be created." Utah Div. of State Lands v. United States, 482 U. S. 193, 196 (1987) (quoting Lessee of Pollard v. Hagan, 3 How. 212, 230 (1845)). That duty may not lightly be disregarded, and, as the Court rightly observes, our inquiry "begin[s] with a strong presumption against defeat of a State's title." Ante, at 273 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Accordingly, "disposals [of submerged lands] by the United States during the territorial period . . . should not be regarded as intended unless the intention was definitely declared or otherwise made very plain." United States v. Holt State Bank, 270 U. S. 49, 55 (1926); see also Montana, supra, at 552 ("[The Court] must not infer such a conveyance unless the intention was definitely declared or otherwise made very plain, or was rendered in clear and especial words, or unless the claim confirmed in terms embraces the land under the waters of the stream" (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)).
The Court makes three critical mistakes in its application of the equal footing doctrine here—errors that significantly dilute the doctrine. First and foremost, the Court misconceives the scope of historical events directly relevant to the question whether Congress had, by July 3, 1890, acted to withhold title to submerged lands from the entering State of Idaho. At the very moment that Idaho entered the Union "on an equal footing with the original States," Act of July 3, 1890, ch. 656, 26 Stat. 215, Congress and the President vested in Idaho the accoutrements of sovereignty, including title to submerged lands. It is therefore improper for the Court to look to events after Idaho's admission in order to discern whether Congress had months or years previously intended to divest the entering State of its submerged lands. Indeed, I am aware of no case applying the equal footing doctrine to determine title to submerged lands in which this Court has looked beyond the moment of statehood for evidence of federal intent.
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