From NPR: The federal government loses its control of land that’s granted to railroad companies after the track has been abandoned, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. The court sided with a private landowner in Wyoming who is fighting efforts to convert disused tracks into a bike path near his house.
The court’s decision overturns decisions by district and appeals courts. The wider impact of the ruling is difficult to estimate, partly because the U.S. government doesn’t have a central database of the land it owns under such circumstances, as SCOTUS Blog has reported.
The justices and attorneys acknowledged that uncertainty during oral arguments over the case in January.
“For all I know, there is some right of way that goes through people’s houses, you know,” Justice Stephen Breyer said, “and all of a sudden, they are going to be living in their house and suddenly a bicycle will run through it.”
(Read more at NPR.org)