The Piscataqua River border dispute was a dispute between the US states of Maine and New Hampshire over ownership of Seavey's Island in the Piscataqua River, which forms the border between Maine and New Hampshire. The dispute was settled in 2002 by the US Supreme Court in favor of Maine.
Seavey's Island lies in the northern side of the Piscataqua River, between the town of Kittery, Maine, and the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The island was originally five separate islands which were conjoined between 1800 and 1866 in order to build a naval shipyard. The State of Maine asserted that the boundary between the states runs along the middle of the river to the south of Seavey's Island, which places the island within Maine. The State of New Hampshire asserted a historical claim to ownership of the river up to the shoreline on the Maine side, which would place the island within New Hampshire. [1]
The United States federal government owns the island, which is the site of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. For many years, the U.S. Navy regarded the shipyard as belonging to New Hampshire (whence the name Portsmouth Naval Shipyard after the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire). Later, the Navy adopted a neutral position in the dispute. [1]
Maine imposes an income tax on workers who work in Maine irrespective of where they live, if they work in Maine at least 12 days and earn at least $3,000. [2] This includes workers at the shipyard, many of whom who live in New Hampshire, which has no income tax. Moreover, aspects of the income tax are based on household income and result in larger payments due to the earnings of spouses who neither live nor work in Maine. New Hampshire contended that since the workers live in New Hampshire, paying taxes to Maine amounted to "taxation without representation". [3] Maine receives an estimated $4 million to $6 million per year in taxes from the shipyard workers. [3] [4]
In March 2000 New Hampshire filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against Maine, claiming ownership of the island. [5] According to the US Constitution, the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases "in which a State shall be a Party".
In 1977, New Hampshire had sued Maine (see New Hampshire v. Maine ) over lobster fishing rights in the littoral waters off the Piscataqua River. In that case the Supreme Court entered a consent decree between the states, in which they agreed that the "middle of the river" was defined as the thalweg – "the middle of the main channel of navigation of the Piscataqua River". [6] The settlement was based on a 1740 decree by King George II, defining the border between the states as the middle of the main navigation channel. The 1977 case, however, was concerned only with the "lateral marine boundary" (littoral waters) between the mouth of the river and the Isles of Shoals, and did not strictly address the inland boundaries between the states. [7] [8]
Maine responded to the 2001 suit with a request to dismiss based on the principle of res judicata , arguing that the 1740 decision and the outcome of the 1977 case barred New Hampshire from filing another border complaint. Indeed, the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, not decided on the arguments.
On May 29, 2001, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the 8–0 decision of the Court. (Justice Souter recused himself from the decision; although justices often do not disclose their reasons for recusal, it is most likely because he had been the Attorney General of New Hampshire and later an associate justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court in the 1970s and 1980s. [3] ) Justice Ginsburg wrote that "judicial estoppel bars New Hampshire from asserting that the Piscataqua River boundary runs along the Maine shore". Under the judicial estoppel doctrine, "Where a party assumes a certain position in a legal proceeding, and succeeds in maintaining that position, he may not thereafter, simply because his interests have changed, assume a contrary position, especially if it be to the prejudice of the party who has acquiesced in the position formerly taken by him". Put simply: Since New Hampshire had agreed in 1977 that the border runs along the middle of the river, New Hampshire may not now claim that the border runs along the Maine riverbank. Wrote Justice Ginsburg: "New Hampshire's claim that the Piscataqua River boundary runs along the Maine shore is clearly inconsistent with its interpretation of the words 'Middle of the River' during the 1970s litigation."
New Hampshire appealed the dismissal and requested the Court to reconsider its dismissal, but the Court denied the motion to reconsider. [9]
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Of the 50 U.S. states, New Hampshire is the seventh-smallest by land area and the tenth-least populous, with a population of 1,377,529 residents as of the 2020 census. Concord is the state capital and Manchester is the most populous city. New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die", reflects its role in the American Revolutionary War; its nickname, "The Granite State", refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries. It is well known nationwide for holding the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle, and for its resulting influence on American electoral politics.
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmouth was formerly the home of the Strategic Air Command's Pease Air Force Base, since converted to Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.
Eliot is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Originally settled in 1623, it was formerly a part of Kittery, to its east. After Kittery, it is the next most southern town in the state of Maine, lying on the Piscataqua River across from Portsmouth and Newington, New Hampshire. The population was 6,717 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.
New Castle is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,000 at the 2020 census. It is the smallest and easternmost town in New Hampshire and the only one located entirely on islands. It is home to Fort Constitution Historic Site, Fort Stark Historic Site, and the New Castle Common, a 31-acre (13 ha) recreation area on the Atlantic Ocean. New Castle is also home to a United States Coast Guard station, as well as the historic Wentworth by the Sea hotel.
Newington is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 811 at the 2020 census. It is bounded to the west by Great Bay, to the northwest by Little Bay and to the northeast by the Piscataqua River.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS), often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine, bordering Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The naval yard lies along the southern boundary of Maine on the Piscataqua River.
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States, and the oldest incorporated town in Maine. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town in the state, it is a tourist destination known for its many outlet stores.
Meldrim Thomson Jr. was an American politician who served three terms as the 73rd governor of New Hampshire from 1973 to 1979. A Republican, he was known as a strong supporter of conservative political values.
The Piscataqua River is a 12-mile-long (19 km) tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River to the Atlantic Ocean. The drainage basin of the river is approximately 1,495 square miles (3,870 km2), including the subwatersheds of the Great Works River and the five rivers flowing into Great Bay: the Bellamy, Oyster, Lamprey, Squamscott, and Winnicut.
The Seacoast Region is the southeast area of the U.S. state of New Hampshire that is centered around the city of Portsmouth. It includes the eastern portion of Rockingham County and the southern portion of Strafford County. At its narrowest definition, the region stretches 13 miles (21 km) along the Atlantic Ocean from New Hampshire's border with Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the Piscataqua River and New Hampshire's border with Kittery, Maine. The shoreline alternates between rocky and rough headlands and areas with sandy beaches. Some of the beaches are bordered by jetties or groins, particularly in the towns of Rye and Hampton. Most definitions of the Seacoast Region includes some inland towns as well, including the Great Bay area cities of Dover and Rochester, the college town of Durham, and areas as far west as Epping. Some definitions also include nearby portions of York County, Maine that are culturally aligned with the Portsmouth area rather than the Portland, Maine metropolitan area.
In the common law, judicial estoppel is an estoppel that precludes a party from taking a position in a case that is contrary to a position it has taken in earlier legal proceedings. Although, in the United States, it is only a part of common law and therefore not sharply defined, it is generally agreed that it can only be cited if the party in question successfully maintained its position in the earlier proceedings and benefited from it.
Title I: The State and Its Government, is the collection of New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated which relate to the state's government as a whole. Like other portions of the RSAs, the Title is divided into Chapters and Sections organized in numbers and subsections organized in lowercase letters.
Seavey's Island, site of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, is located in the Piscataqua River in Kittery, Maine, United States, opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It encompasses 278 acres (1.13 km2).
New Hampshire v. Maine, 426 U.S. 363 (1977), was an original jurisdiction case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the boundary between the states of New Hampshire and Maine was fixed by the 1740 decree of King George II of Great Britain. Both sides entered into a consent decree which was accepted by the special master appointed by the Court.
Florida v. Georgia, 58 U.S. 478 (1854), was a United States Supreme Court case invoking the Court's original jurisdiction to determine boundary disputes between states. In this case the boundary dispute was between the State of Florida and the State of Georgia.
U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is a north–south U.S. Route is the U.S. state of New Hampshire through Hampton and Portsmouth. It lies between Interstate 95 (I-95) and New Hampshire Route 1A (NH 1A).
Badger's Island is located in the Piscataqua River at Kittery, Maine, United States, directly opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It carries U.S. Route 1 between the states, connecting to the Kittery mainland by the Badger's Island Bridge, and to New Hampshire by the Memorial Bridge. Now largely a suburb of Portsmouth, the island features houses, condominiums, restaurants and marinas.
The Portsmouth Downtown Historic District encompasses the historic urban core of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. With a history dating to the 17th century, Portsmouth was New Hampshire's principal seaport and the center of its economy for many decades, and the architecture of its urban center is reflective of nearly four centuries of history. The district is roughly L-shaped, radiating from the downtown Market Square area to South Street in the south and Madison and Columbia streets in the west, with more than 1,200 historically significant buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The district includes 35 previous listings on the National Register, and five National Historic Landmarks.