Syllabus
Note: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
NEW YORK v. NEW JERSEY
ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS
No. 156, Orig. Argued March 1, 2023—Decided April 18, 2023
In 1953, New York and New Jersey exercised their authority under Article I, §10, of the Constitution to enter into a compact to address corruption at the Port of New York and New Jersey. The Waterfront Commission Compact established a bistate agency known as the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, to which the States delegated their sovereign authority to conduct regulatory and law-enforcement activities at the Port. The Compact does not address each State’s power to withdraw from the Compact.
In 2018, New Jersey sought to unilaterally withdraw from the Compact, over New York’s opposition. New York filed a bill of complaint in this Court, and the parties then filed cross-motions for judgment on the pleadings, with the United States supporting New Jersey as amicus curiae.
Held: New Jersey may unilaterally withdraw from the Waterfront Commission Compact notwithstanding New York’s opposition. Pp. 3–9.
(a) The interpretation of an interstate compact approved by Congress presents a federal question, see Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U. S. 433, 438, the resolution of which begins with an examination of “the express terms of the Compact,” Tarrant Regional Water Dist. v. Herrmann, 569 U. S. 614, 628. Unlike certain other compacts, the Compact here does not address withdrawal.
