City of Tacoma v. Taxpayers of Tacoma/Concurrence Harlan

Mr. Justice HARLAN, concurring.

I join the Court's opinion, but deem it appropriate to state my understanding of what the Court has held. The Court of Appeals in the earlier proceeding had jurisdiction to determine whether state or federal law governed Tacoma's power to condemn the State's hatchery, and that issue itself was a federal question. Section 313(b) of the Federal Power Act therefore foreclosed relitigation of this issue in the present case. I do not understand the Court to suggest that the Federal Power Act endowed the Commission and the Court of Appeals with authority to decide any issues of state law if such law were deemed controlling, or that had the Court of Appeals undertaken to do so, such a determination would have foreclosed re-examination of such a decision in other proceedings.