Brandt Trust v. United States (572 U.S. 93)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 10, 2014 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 572 U.S. 93 · 134 S. Ct. 1257
- Decided
- March 10, 2014
- Term
- October Term 2013
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Private Action
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. In the mid-19th century, Congress began granting private railroad companies rights of way over public lands to encourage the settlement and development of the West. Many of those same public lands were later conveyed by the Government to homesteaders and other settlers, with the lands continuing to be subject to the railroads' rights of way. The settlers and their successors remained, but many of the railroads did not. This case presents the question of what happens to a railroad's right of way granted under a particular statute-the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875-when the railroad abandons it: does it go to the Government, or to the private party who acquired the land underlying the right of way? I A In the early to mid-19th century, America looked west. The period from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 saw the acquisition of the western lands that filled out what is now the contiguous United States. The young country had numerous reasons to encourage settlement and development of this vast new expanse. What it needed was a fast and reliable way to transport people and property to those frontier lands. New technology provided the answer: the railroad. The Civil War spurred the effort to develop a transcontinental railroad, as the Federal Government saw the need to protect its…
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