Navigable servitude

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006)

Navigable servitude is a United States constitutional doctrine that gives the federal government a property right over waterways as an extension of the Commerce Clause of Article I, Section 8 of the constitution.

The Commerce Clause gives Congress the power to regulate "Commerce . . . among the several states." In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that this power extended to regulation over navigable waterways,22 U.S. 1 which were an important hub of transportation in the early years of the Republic.

The beds of navigable waterways, however, fall under the jurisdiction of the states.[1]