The Superior Oil Company v. The City of Port Arthur

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge.

This case is a constitutional attack on the City of Port Arthur’s annexation of offshore property leased by Superior Oil Company from the State of Texas. The federal district court held that the annexation violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Because a prior state adjudication determined that the annexation did not violate the Constitution, we reverse the judgment of the federal district court.

I

In 1979, by sequential annexation ordinances, the City of Port Arthur annexed an area one mile wide extending three…