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- Subject: No. 74, Orig.--DISSENT, GEORGIA v. SOUTH CAROLINA
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- SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
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- No. 74, Orig.
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- GEORGIA v. SOUTH CAROLINA
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- on exceptions to reports of special master
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- [June 25, 1990]
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- Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Scalia joins, dissenting in part.
- With respect to Part IX of the Court's opinion, I would sustain South
- Carolina's exception to the Special Master's determination of the angle of
- the lateral seaward boundary. I am persuaded that a boundary drawn in
- reference to the full coastlines of the respective States, rather than one
- drawn perpendicular to the line connecting Hilton Head and Tybee Islands,
- is more equitable and consistent with the equidistant principle of Texas v.
- Louisiana, 426 U. S. 465 (1976). {1} The difference between this boundary
- and that recommended by the Special Master becomes particularly clear if
- one assumes that the boundary line would not change angles when it crosses
- the outer limits of the 3-mile and 12-mile territorial seas.
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- 1
- South Carolina's coast runs northeast to southwest at approximately a
- 47 angle, and Georgia's at a 20 angle. Ante, at 23. Lines perpendicular
- to these coastal fronts, at approximately 137 and 110, respectively, define
- the overlapping area in the illustrations on the next page. The Hilton
- Head-to-Tybee closing line lies at a 14 angle. S. C. Rebuttal Brief 8.
- The Special Master and the Court set the boundary east of this closing line
- at an angle perpendicular to it, at the azimuth 104, completely outside of
- the overlap of the States' coastal fronts:
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- S. C. Exceptions 21.
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- I would extend the boundary eastward from the same starting point, but at
- an angle perpendicular to the average angle of the States' coastal fronts.
- Assuming that the above-reported measures of the coastal fronts are
- correct, the azimuth of this boundary would be approximately 1231/2 :
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- S. C. Exceptions 22.