By Debra Cassens Weiss | ABA Journal
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled for a Wyoming property owner fighting the federal government’s effort to construct a bike trail on abandoned railroad tracks.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the government did not retain a right of way when the railroad abandoned the tracks. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion (PDF) and Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter.
The Mountain States Legal Foundation represented landowner Melvin Brandt, who opposed the government’s claim to the land when it filed an action to quiet title in 2006. Brandt’s parents had obtained title to the land crossed by the railroad from the U.S. government in 1976, subject to the rights granted to the railway company, its successors and assigns.
