The Nation - News from March 19, 1986

With the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty barely four months away, a New Jersey state judge, saying he did not have jurisdiction, dismissed a lawsuit that questioned whether the island on which the landmark rests belongs to New Jersey or New York. The lawsuit asked the court to declare invalid an 1833 compact between the two states that handed to New York jurisdiction over Liberty and neighboring Ellis islands, both of which sit in the Hudson River, the states’ boundary.