Admiralty v. Servitude

Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164 (1979):

"Footnote 1: In ...Vaughn v. Vermilion Corp., post, p. 206 the Louisiana Court of Appeal held that privately constructed canals, connected to navigable waters of the United States, navigable in fact, and used for commerce, are not subject to the federal navigational servitude. 356 So.2d 551, writ denied, 357 So.2d 558 (1978)."

"Footnote 7: 'Navigable water' subject to federal admiralty jurisdiction was defined as including waters that are navigable in fact in The Propeller Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 How. 443 (1852). See also, e. g., The Belfast, 7 Wall. 624 (1869). And in Ex parte Boyer, 109 U.S. 629 (1884), this Court held that such jurisdiction extended to artificial bodies of water:

'Navigable water situated as this canal is, used for the purposes for which it is used, a highway for commerce between ports and places in different States, carried on by vessels such as those in question here, is public water of the United States, and within the legitimate scope of the admiralty jurisdiction conferred by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, even though the canal is wholly artificial, and is wholly within the body of a State, and subject to its ownership and control; and it makes no difference as to the jurisdiction of the district court that one or the other of the vessels was at the time of collision on a voyage from one place in the State of Illinois to another place in that State.' Id., at 632.

"Congress, pursuant to its authority under the Necessary and Proper Clause of Art. I to enact laws carrying into execution the powers vested in other departments of the Federal Government, has also been recognized as having the power to legislate with regard to matters concerning admiralty and maritime cases. Butler v. Boston S. S. Co., 130 U.S. 527, 557 (1889). See also, e. g., In re Garnett, 141 U.S. 1, 12 (1891)."