The public right of navigation is the dominant right....

[s/v Faith]

It is amazing to me how often local entities 'claim' exclusive rights to a patch of water....

... worth noting;

Very simply and to the point the U.S. Supreme Court has already spoken on this issue.
?1.U.S. Supreme Court, Lewis Blue Point Oyster Cultivation Co. v. Briggs 229 US 82
When overturning a lower court case the U.S. Supreme Court said: ?If the public right of navigation is the dominant right, and if, as must be the case, the title of the owner of the bed of navigable waters hold subject absolutely to the public right of navigation, this dominant right must include the right to the use of the bed of water for every purpose which is in aid of navigation.??
Robert Driscoll

No political discussion intended here, just want to make the point in case anyone here is ever lead to believe otherwise....

[JWalker]

wow, that's pretty strongly worded.

grog for digging that up.

[SeaHusky]

By enforced practice I have become quite fluent in Swedish "lawyerspeak" but still struggle with the English version.
Could someone please say it in laymans terms and also, what is the story?
Do you have people saying "This is my water, get out!"?

[Tim]

What basically it is saying (and there is other case law and regulations to back it up) is that the public holds an over riding right to navigate on all waters.

This holds true all the way down to small streams. I use to whitewater kayak and would test this law many times.  

and yes we have plenty of people trying to say "this is mine get out"   :-[

[Oldrig]

FYI: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the state of Montana and various power companies that could challenge this legal principal.

Given that the current Court has shown disregard for precedent in a number of decisions (oops, I'll try to steer clear of politics), the outcome could be very important--at least as far as "navigable" rivers and streams are concerned.

I'm not sure that the decision will have much effect on sailable waters, especially those of the salty variety, but you never know what the "this-water-is-mine" crowd will try to do with whatever the Court decides.

--Joe

[Tim]

Joe could you give me a little more info on that case?  I get regular updates on cases before the Supreme Court and cannot find it.
Thanks Tim