Trenton, New Jersey. A new bill that was submitted in the New Jersey Senate seeks to formally examine the shared boundary along the Delaware River and Bay, bringing a century-old legal and territorial conflict between New Jersey and Delaware back into the spotlight.
State Senator Mike Testa filed Senate Bill S4671, which suggests that New Jersey join a Territorial Boundary Adjustment Compact with Delaware. In one of the most unique and historically contentious state borders in the country, the law represents a renewed effort by New Jersey to define or challenge jurisdictional boundaries.
The 1905 Interstate Compact, which sought to specify each state’s rights, addressed the border dispute, which has roots in colonial charters. In the 2008 case of New Jersey v. Delaware, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Delaware, upholding its authority over submerged land in specific river and bay zones up to the New Jersey shore.
The 2008 dispute started when Delaware opposed BP’s plan to construct a liquefied natural gas facility on its side of the river under the Coastal Zone Act, and New Jersey approved the plan. The majority judgment was written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the Supreme Court decided 6 2 in favor of Delaware. The Court concluded that New Jersey did not have exclusive jurisdiction over riparian improvements under the terms of the 1905 agreement between the two states.
Because the border is uniquely delineated by a 17th-century grant that extends Delaware’s territory to the low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore within a 12-mile radius from New Castle, the decision upheld Delaware’s authority to regulate projects even when they are physically connected to the New Jersey shoreline.
Current laws are influenced by past court cases.
Sen. Testa’s bill echoes a trend of previous legislative attempts by New Jersey lawmakers to establish stronger connection with the Delaware Bay region, but it does not specify how the compact would change current boundaries or enforcement. The idea comes after S4670, another bill that aims to change the Delaware Bay’s name to the Bay of New Jersey.
In his 2008 dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Samuel Alito stated that the New Jersey Delaware Compact of 1905 addressed the exercise [of] riparian jurisdiction and the authority to grant riparian rights. New Jersey is connected to both dissenters.
For the contract put forth by S4671 to become enforceable, Delaware’s assistance and congressional approval are probably necessary. The legislation has not yet received a response from federal officials or Delaware politicians.
The precedent established by the 2008 Supreme Court ruling and the long-standing framework of the original 1905 agreement between the two states would be obstacles to any new compact. The complete language of the compact has not been made available to the public.
In one of the strangest and most enduring border disputes in America, centuries-old territorial lines are being revived by New Jersey’s most recent compact bill.
