Save Coral Bay, Inc. v. Albert Bryan, Jr., Governor of the Virgin Islands, et al.

In 1974, the United States transferred the submerged lands surrounding the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Territory “to be administered in trust for the benefit of the people.” 48 U.S.C. § 1705(a). The Virgin Islands fulfills its obligations as trustee through the Coastal Zone Management Act, 12 V.I.C. § 901 et seq. (“CZMA”). Any proposed development of submerged lands requires a “CZMA permit” issued only after an agency/public review process. The permit cannot be approved if there will be “significant adverse environmental effects.” 12 V.I.C. § 911(c)(2). In 2019, the Governor of the Virgin Islands approved a CZMA permit that authorized the construction of a mega-yacht marina. The same day, he bypassed the CZMA agency/public review process and modified the permit to authorize, among other things, additional submerged land development. The Virgin Islands Legislature ratified the modified permit one year later. Petitioner challenged the modification/ ratification; but, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court held (1) the ratification acted as a valid repeal of the CZMA as applied to the permittee, and (2) the judiciary was powerless to review the action. The question presented, which implicates an ongoing federal-territorial court conflict as to whether the Supremacy Clause applies to the territory, is: When a territory enacts a law that contravenes a duty imposed by federal law, must the territory’s judiciary look beyond whether the law was properly enacted and determine whether it violates federal law?