Melvin B. Gillis, Appellant v. Aleutians East Borough and State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Appellees

Summary

The court affirmed summary judgment for the Aleutians East Borough and the Department of Natural Resources, holding that the statutory preference right required an applicant to have entered and used the land while it was under federal ownership before state selection. The court concluded that the statute's conjunction and temporal language, related preference-right provisions, legislative history, and longstanding agency interpretation all supported that reading. The court also rejected the argument that this interpretation produced an absurd result.