Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 14, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States, No. No. 12-1173. That’s the case in which the Court is considering the meaning of the term railroad “right of way” as used in an 1875 federal statute.
As our amici brief argues, if the Court accepts the government’s theory in the case, it could wipe out an entire class of rails-to-trails takings cases, and indeed could undermine title to a wider range of property in which a federal patent is involved.
SCOTUSblog has a good preview of the issues here. Greenwire also has a good report on the case here.