Cite as: 533 U. S. 262 (2001)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
Our decision in United States v. Alaska, 521 U. S. 1 (1997), is particularly illustrative of the timeframe relevant to our inquiry. That case concerned in part Alaska's assumption of title to submerged lands within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Reserve) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge). See id., at 4. In stark contrast to today's decision, the Court in its lengthy discussion in Alaska resisted entirely the temptation to delve into the treatment of the lands in question in the months and years following Alaska's admission to the Union in 1959. And the invitation to do so hardly could have been more obvious with respect to the Refuge, which had been "set apart" as a wild-life reservation but had not yet been formally approved by the Secretary of the Interior. Id., at 46-47. "This application," the Court observed, "was still pending in July 1958, when Congress passed the Alaska Statehood Act, and in January 1959, when Alaska was formally admitted to the Union." Id., at 46. Although the Court noted that the application was approved several months after Alaska's admission, the Court considered the pending application as relevant only insofar as it put Congress on notice of the action. See id., at 56. The Alaska Court did not give— contrary to the Court's reasoning in the present case—any import to the fact that the application ultimately was approved. Indeed, Alaska's focus on the instant of statehood as the crucial moment of inquiry could hardly be more clear. See, e. g., id., at 42 ("The conclusion that Congress was aware when it passed the Alaska Statehood Act that the Reserve encompassed submerged lands is reinforced by other legislation, enacted just before Alaska's admission to the Union, granting certain offshore lands to the Territory of Alaska"); id., at 55 ("We now consider whether, prior to Alaska's admission to the Union, the United States defeated the future State's title to the submerged lands included within the proposed Range" (emphases added)). Other cases indicate
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