Thomas, J., concurring
This understanding of the limits of Congress’ channels-of-commerce authority prevailed through the end of the 19th century. The Court’s cases consistently recognized that Congress has authority over navigable waters for only the limited “purpose of regulating and improving navigation.” Gibson v. United States, 166 U. S. 269, 271–272 (1897); see also Port of Seattle v. Oregon & Washington R. Co., 255 U. S. 56, 63 (1921) (“The right of the United States in the navigable waters within the several States is limited to the control thereof for purposes of navigation”). And, this Court was careful to reaffirm that “technical title to the beds of the navigable rivers of the United States is either in the States in which the rivers are situated, or in the owners of the land bordering upon such rivers” as determined by “local law.” United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Co., 229 U. S. 53, 60 (1913).
The River and Harbor Acts of 1890, 1894, and 1899 illustrate the limits of the channels-of-commerce authority. The 1890 Act authorizes the Secretary of War to “prohibi[t]” “the creation of any obstruction, not affirmatively authorized by law, to the navigable capacity of any waters, in respect of which the United States has jurisdiction.” §10, 26 Stat. 454. The 1894 Act made it unlawful to deposit matter into “any harbor or river of the United States” that the Federal Government has appropriated money to improve and prohibited injuring improvements built by the United States in “any of its navigable waters.” §6, 28 Stat. 363.
Congress consolidated and expanded these authorities in the 1899 Act. Section 10 of the Act prohibits “[t]he creation of any obstruction … to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States,” requires a permit to build “structures in any … water of the United States,” and makes it unlawful “to excavate or fill, or in any manner to alter or modify the course, location, condition, or capacity” of any water, “within the limits of any breakwater, or of the channel of any navigable water of the United States.” 30
