Supreme Court deals setback to rails-to-trails movement (8-1)
Source: Los Angeles Times
The Supreme Court dealt a setback Monday to the popular redevelopment trend of transforming abandoned railroad lines into public bike paths, ruling that buyers of such lands are not required to continue granting a federal right of way.
Legal experts said the decision would make it harder to build bike or hiking trails in areas of the West where railroads were often built on former federal land. In some instances, local governments may be forced to pay compensation to owners whose land is now crossed by bike paths or other government-built trails and parks.
In an 8-1 decision, the justices ruled in favor of Marvin Brandt, a Wyoming man who controls 83 acres of land that was formerly used by the Wyoming and Colorado Railroad, located near the Medicine Bow National Forest. When the U.S. Forest Service told Brandt that the government retained the railroad's right of way across his land and planned to use it for a bike trail, he filed suit.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the Railroad Right of Way Act of 1875 gave the rail lines a temporary easement across the land, but once the rail line was abandoned and the property was sold, the government no longer had a right of way. . .
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, pictured in January, dissented in Monday's ruling. She said the decision "undermines the legality of thousands of miles of former rights of way that the public now enjoys as means of transportation and recreation. . .
In his opinion, the chief justice blamed Congress and the federal government for changing their stance on property rights. He said lawmakers in 1922 said that rights of way that were abandoned by the railroads could become the property of a municipality or a private owner. But in 1988, when the rails-to-trails movement was gaining popularity, "Congress did an about-face" and passed a new law to reserve these rights for the government.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-scotus-rails-trail-20140311,0,6389222.story#ixzz2vdC1Abve
