You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

Delaware Über Alles

My esteemed colleague Jon Chait will be saddened to learn that Delaware scored a major victory in the Supreme Court today, prevailing over New Jersey in their border dispute stemming from a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal near the mouth of the Delaware River. Full text of the opinion here (pdf). The voting on the Court followed a pattern refreshingly different from the usual liberal–conservative split. In this case, the division occurred between New Jerseyans and non–New Jerseyans: Justices Scalia and Alito, apparently overcome with Garden State pride, were the only dissenters.

Update: A friendly email informs me that there's even more awesomeness here than I'd realized. From the special master's report on the case: "Delaware considered legislation authorizing the National Guard to step in to protect Delaware's borders from encroachment. And one New Jersey legislator even explored the seaworthiness of the decommissioned battleship New Jersey, currently docked as a museum on the Camden waterfront, in the event the state was forced to repel an armed invasion by Delaware." Count me among those wishing this conflict had been resolved less peacefully.

--Josh Patashnik