Lead Opinion
*95In 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.
*96The 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 citizens and secure its possessions in the West. Leo Sheep Co. v. United States,
The substantial benefits a transcontinental railroad could bring were clear, but building it was no simple matter. The risks were great and the costs were staggering. Popular sentiment grew for the Government to play a role in supporting the massive project. Indeed, in 1860, President Lincoln's winning platform proclaimed: "That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction." J. Ely, Railroads and American Law 51 (2001). But how to do it? Sufficient funds were not at hand (especially with a Civil War to fight), and there were serious reservations about the legal authority for direct financing. "The policy of the country, to say nothing of the supposed want of constitutional power, stood in the way of the United States taking the work into its own hands." Union Pacific R. Co., supra, at 81.
*1261What the country did have, however, was land-lots of it. It could give away vast swaths of public land-which at the time possessed little value without reliable transportation-in hopes that such grants would increase the appeal of a transcontinental railroad to private investors. Ely, supra, at 52-53. In the early 1860s, Congress began granting to railroad companies rights of way through the public domain, *97accompanied by outright grants of land along those rights of way. P. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development 362-368 (1968). The land was conveyed in checkerboard blocks. For example, under the Union Pacific Act of 1862, odd-numbered lots of one square mile apiece were granted to the railroad, while even-numbered lots were retained by the United States. Leo Sheep Co., supra, at 672-673, 686, n. 23,
But public resentment against such generous land grants to railroads began to grow in the late 1860s. Western settlers, initially some of the staunchest supporters of governmental railroad subsidization, complained that the railroads moved too slowly in placing their lands on the market and into the hands of farmers and settlers. Citizens and Members of Congress argued that the grants conflicted with the goal of the Homestead Act of 1862 to encourage individual citizens to settle and develop the frontier lands. By the 1870s, legislators across the political spectrum had embraced a policy of reserving public lands for settlers rather than granting them to railroads. Id., at 380, 454-456.
A House resolution adopted in 1872 summed up the change in national policy, stating:
"That in the judgment of this House the policy of granting subsidies in public lands to railroads and other corporations ought to be discontinued, and that every consideration of public policy and equal justice to the whole people requires that the public lands should be held for the purpose of securing homesteads to actual settlers, and for educational purposes, as may be provided by law." Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., 1585.
Congress enacted the last checkerboard land-grant statute for railroads in 1871. Gates, supra, at 380. Still wishing to *98encourage railroad construction, however, Congress passed at least 15 special acts between 1871 and 1875 granting to designated railroads "the right of way" through public lands, without any accompanying land subsidy. Great Northern R. Co. v. United States,
Rather than continue to enact special legislation for each such right of way, Congress passed the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875,
The 1875 Act remained in effect until 1976, when its provisions governing the issuance of new rights of way were repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, § 706(a),
B
Melvin M. Brandt began working at a sawmill in Fox Park, Wyoming, in 1939. He later purchased the sawmill and, in 1946, moved his family to Fox Park. Melvin's son Marvin *99started working at the sawmill in 1958 and came to own and operate it in 1976 until it closed, 15 years later.
In 1976, the United States patented an 83-acre parcel of land in Fox Park, surrounded by the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, to Melvin and Lulu Brandt. (A land patent is an official document reflecting a grant by a sovereign that is made public, or "patent.") The patent conveyed to the Brandts fee simple title to the land "with all the rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances, of whatsoever nature, thereunto belonging, unto said claimants, their successors and assigns, forever." App. to Pet. for Cert. 76. But the patent did include limited exceptions and reservations. For example, the patent "except[s] and reserv[es] to the United States from the land granted a right-of-way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States"; "reserv[es] to the United States ... a right-of-way for the existing Platte Access Road No. 512"; and "reserv[es] to the United States ... a right-of-way for the existing Dry Park Road No. 517." Id., at 76-77 (capitalization omitted). But if those roads cease to be used by the United States or its assigns for a period of five years, the patent provides that "the easement traversed thereby shall terminate." Id., at 78.
Most relevant to this case, the patent concludes by stating that the land was granted "subject to those rights for railroad purposes as have been granted to the Laramie[,] Hahn's Peak & Pacific Railway Company, its successors or assigns." Ibid. (capitalization omitted). The patent did not specify what would occur if the railroad abandoned this right of way.
The right of way referred to in the patent was obtained by the Laramie, Hahn's Peak and Pacific Railroad (LHP & P) in 1908, pursuant to the 1875 Act.
In 1911, the LHP & P completed construction of its railway over the right of way, from Laramie to Coalmont, Colorado. Its proprietors had rosy expectations, proclaiming that it would become "one of the most important railroad systems in this country." Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific Railway System: The Direct Gateway to Southern Wyoming, Northern Colorado, *1263and Eastern Utah 24 (1910). But the railroad ultimately fell short of that goal. Rather than shipping coal and other valuable ores as originally hoped, the LHP & P was used primarily to transport timber and cattle. R. King, Trails to Rails: A History of Wyoming's Railroads 90 (2003). Largely because of high operating costs during Wyoming winters, the LHP & P never quite achieved financial stability. It changed hands numerous times from 1914 until 1935, when it was acquired by the Union Pacific Railroad at the urging of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Ibid. ; S. Thybony, R. Rosenberg, & E. Rosenberg, The Medicine Bows: Wyoming's Mountain Country 136-138 (1985); F. Hollenback, The Laramie Plains Line 47-49 (1960).
In 1987, the Union Pacific sold the rail line, including the right of way, to the Wyoming and Colorado Railroad, which planned to use it as a tourist attraction. King, supra, at 90. That did not prove profitable either, and in 1996 the Wyoming and Colorado notified the Surface Transportation Board of its intent to abandon the right of way. The railroad tore up the tracks and ties and, after receiving Board approval, completed abandonment in 2004. In 2006 the United States initiated this action seeking a judicial declaration of abandonment and an order quieting title in the United States to the abandoned right of way. In addition to the *101railroad, the Government named as defendants the owners of 31 parcels of land crossed by the abandoned right of way.
The Government settled with or obtained a default judgment against all but one of those landowners-Marvin Brandt. He contested the Government's claim and filed a counterclaim on behalf of a family trust that now owns the Fox Park parcel, and himself as trustee.
The District Court granted summary judgment to the Government and quieted title in the United States to the right of way over Brandt's land.
We granted certiorari. 570 U.S. ----,
*1264II
This dispute turns on the nature of the interest the United States conveyed to the LHP & P in 1908 pursuant to the 1875 Act. Brandt contends that the right of way granted under the 1875 Act was an easement, so that when the railroad abandoned it, the underlying land (Brandt's Fox Park parcel) simply became unburdened of the easement. The Government does not dispute that easements normally work this way, but maintains that the 1875 Act granted the railroads something more than an easement, reserving an implied reversionary interest in that something more to the United States. The Government loses that argument today, in large part because it won when it argued the opposite before this Court more than 70 years ago, in the case of Great Northern Railway Co. v. United States,
In 1907, Great Northern succeeded to an 1875 Act right of way that ran through public lands in Glacier County, Montana. Oil was later discovered in the area, and Great Northern wanted to drill beneath its right of way. But the Government sued to enjoin the railroad from doing so, claiming that the railroad had only an easement, so that the United States retained all interests beneath the surface.
This Court had indeed previously held that the pre-1871 statutes, granting rights of way accompanied by checkerboard land subsidies, conveyed to the railroads "a limited fee, made on an implied condition of reverter." See, e.g., Northern Pacific R. Co. v. Townsend,
*103The Government disagreed. It argued that "the 1875 Act granted an easement and nothing more," and that the railroad accordingly could claim no interest in the resources beneath the surface. Brief for United States in Great Northern R. Co. v. United States, O.T. 1941, No. 149, p. 29. "The year 1871 marks the end of one era and the beginning of a new in American land-grant history," the Government contended; thus, cases construing the pre-1871 statutes were inapplicable in construing the 1875 Act, id., at 15, 29-30. Instead, the Government argued, the text, background, and subsequent administrative and congressional construction of the 1875 Act all made clear that, unlike rights of way granted under pre-1871 land-grant statutes, those granted under the 1875 Act were mere easements.
The Court adopted the United States' position in full, holding that the 1875 Act "clearly grants only an easement, and not a fee." Great Northern,
That interpretation was confirmed, the Court explained, by the historical background against which the 1875 Act was passed and by subsequent administrative and congressional interpretation. The Court accepted the Government's position that prior cases describing the nature of pre-1871 rights of way-including Townsend,
The dissent is wrong to conclude that Great Northern merely held that "the right of way did not confer one particular attribute of fee title." Post, at 1270 (opinion of SOTOMAYOR, J.). To the contrary, the Court specifically rejected the notion that the right of way conferred even a "limited fee."
When the United States patented the Fox Park parcel to Brandt's parents in 1976, it conveyed fee simple title to that land, "subject to those rights for railroad purposes" that had been granted to the LHP & P. The United States did not reserve to itself any interest in the right of way in that patent. Under Great Northern , the railroad thus had an easement in its right of way over land owned by the Brandts.
The essential features of easements-including, most important here, what happens when they cease to be used-are *105well settled as a matter of property law. An easement is a "nonpossessory right to enter and use land in the possession of another and obligates the possessor not to interfere with the uses authorized by the easement." Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes § 1.2(1) (1998). "Unlike most possessory estates, easements ... may be unilaterally terminated by abandonment, leaving the servient owner with a possessory estate unencumbered by the servitude."
III
Contrary to that straightforward conclusion, the Government now tells us that Great Northern did not really mean what it said. Emphasizing that Great Northern involved only the question of who owned the oil and minerals beneath a right of way, the Government asks the Court to limit its characterization of 1875 Act rights of way as "easements" to that context. Even if the right of way has some features of an easement-such as granting only a surface interest to the railroad when the Government wants the subsurface oil and minerals-the Government asks us to hold that the right of way is not an easement for purposes of what happens when the railroad stops using it. But nothing in the text of the 1875 Act supports such an improbable (and self-serving) reading.
The Government argues that the similarity in the language of the 1875 Act and the pre-1871 statutes shows that Congress intended to reserve a reversionary interest in the lands granted under the 1875 Act, just as it did in the pre-1871 statutes. See Brief for United States 17-18. But that is directly contrary to the very premise of this Court's decision (and the Government's argument) in Great Northern : that the 1875 Act granted a fundamentally different interest in the rights of way than did the predecessor statutes.
The Government next contends that this Court's decisions in Stalker v. Oregon Short Line R. Co.,
In both Stalker and Steinke, a railroad that had already obtained an 1875 Act right of way thereafter claimed adjacent land for station grounds under the Act, as it was permitted to do because of its right of way. A homesteader subsequently filed a claim to the same land, unaware of the station grounds. The question in each case was whether the railroad could build on the station grounds, notwithstanding a subsequent patent to the homesteader. The homesteader claimed priority because the railroad's station grounds map had not been recorded in the local land office at the time the homesteader filed his claim. This Court construed the 1875 Act to give the railroad priority because it had submitted its proposed map to the Department of the Interior before the *108homesteader filed his claim. See Stalker,
The dispute in each case was framed in terms of competing claims to the right to acquire and develop the same tract of land. The Court ruled for the railroad, but did not purport to define the precise nature of the interest granted under the 1875 Act. Indeed, it does not appear that the Court in either case considered-much less rejected-an argument that the railroad had obtained only an easement in the contested land, so that the patent could still convey title to the homesteader. In any event, to the extent that Stalker and Steinke could be read to imply that the railroads had been granted something more than an easement, any such implication would not have survived this Court's unequivocal statement in Great Northern that the 1875 Act "clearly grants only an easement, and not a fee."
Finally, the Government relies on a number of later enacted statutes that it says demonstrate that Congress believed the United States had retained a reversionary interest in the 1875 Act rights of way. Brief for United States 34-42. But each of those statutes purported only to dispose of interests the United States already possessed, not to create or modify any such interests in the first place. First, in 1906 and 1909, Congress declared forfeited any right of way on which a railroad had not been constructed in the five years after the location of the road.
Then, in 1922, Congress provided that whenever a railroad forfeited or officially abandoned its right of way, "all right, title, interest, and estate of the United States in said lands" (other than land that had been converted to a public highway) would immediately be transferred to either the municipality *109in which it was located, or else to the person who owned the underlying land.
The Government argues that these statutes prove that Congress intended to retain (or at least believed it had retained) a reversionary interest in 1875 Act rights of way. Otherwise, the argument goes, these later statutes providing for the disposition of the abandoned or forfeited strips of land would have been meaningless. That is wrong. This case turns on what kind of interest Congress granted to railroads in their rights of way in 1875. Cf. Leo Sheep Co.,
In other words, these statutes do not tell us whether the United States has an interest in any particular right of way; they simply tell us how any interest the United States might have should be disposed of. For pre-1871 rights of way in which the United States retained an implied reversionary interest, or for rights of way crossing public lands, these statutes might make a difference in what happens to a forfeited or abandoned right of way. But if there is no "right, title, interest, [or] estate of the United States" in the right of way,
*110We cannot overlook the irony in the Government's argument based on Sections 912 and 940. Those provisions plainly evince Congress's intent to divest the United States of any title or interest it had retained to railroad rights of way, and to vest that interest in individuals to whom the underlying land had been patented-in other words, people just like the Brandts. It was not until 1988-12 years after the United States patented the Fox Park parcel to the Brandts-that Congress did an about-face and attempted to reserve the rights of way to the United States. That policy shift cannot operate to create an interest in land that the Government had already given away.
More than 70 years ago, the Government argued before this Court that a right of way granted under the 1875 Act was a simple easement. The Court was persuaded, and so ruled. Now the Government argues that such a right of way is tantamount to a limited fee with an implied reversionary interest. We decline to endorse such a stark change in position, especially given "the special need for certainty and predictability where land titles are concerned." Leo Sheep Co., supra, at 687,
*1269The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Locals at the time translated the acronym LHP & P as "Lord Help Push and Pull" or "Late, Hard Pressed, and Panicky." S. Thybony, R. Rosenberg, & E. Rosenberg, The Medicine Bows: Wyoming's Mountain Country 136 (1985).
The other landowners had a potential interest in much smaller acreages: No other party could claim an interest in more than three acres of the right of way, and only six of the 31 potential claims amounted to more than one acre. See Amended Complaint in No. 06-CV-0184J etc. (D Wyo.), ¶¶ 6-10.
The District Court dismissed without prejudice Brandt's separate counterclaim for just compensation. Brandt then filed a takings claim in the Court of Federal Claims. That case has been stayed pending the disposition of this one.
Because granting an easement merely gives the grantee the right to enter and use the grantor's land for a certain purpose, but does not give the grantee any possessory interest in the land, it does not make sense under common law property principles to speak of the grantor of an easement having retained a "reversionary interest." A reversionary interest is "any future interest left in a transferor or his successor in interest." Restatement (First) of Property § 154(1)(1936). It arises when the grantor "transfers less than his entire interest" in a piece of land, and it is either certain or possible that he will retake the transferred interest at a future date.
The dissent invokes the principle that "any ambiguity in land grants 'is to be resolved favorably to a sovereign grantor,' " post, at 1269 (quoting Great Northern R. Co. v . United States,
* * *
Dissenting Opinion
*111The Court bases today's holding almost entirely on Great Northern R. Co. v. United States,
I
Over a century ago, this Court held that a right of way granted to a railroad by a pre-1871 Act of Congress included "an implied condition of reverter" to the Government if the right of way ceased to be used "for the purpose for which it was granted." Northern Pacific R. Co. v. Townsend,
*112
The Court later confirmed in Rio Grande Western R. Co. v. Stringham,
II
A
This case therefore turns on whether, as the majority asserts, Great Northern "disavowed" Townsend and Stringham as to the question whether the United States retained a reversionary interest in the right of way. Ante, at 1264 - 1265. Great Northern did no such thing. Nor could it have, for the Court did not have occasion to consider that question.
*113In Great Northern , a railroad sought to drill for oil beneath the surface of a right of way granted under the 1875 Act. We held that the railroad had no right to drill, because the United States did not convey the underlying oil and minerals when it granted the railroad a right of way. In language on which the Court relies heavily, Great Northern opined that the 1875 Act granted the railroad "only an easement, and not a fee."
But that language does not logically lead to the place at which the majority ultimately arrives. All that Great Northern held-all, at least, that was necessary to its ruling-was that the right of way did not confer one particular attribute of fee title. Specifically, the Court held, the right of way did not confer the right to exploit subterranean resources, because the 1875 Act could not have made clearer that the right of way extended only to surface lands: It provided that after the recordation of a right of way, "all ... lands over which such right of way shall pass shall be disposed of subject to such right of way."
The majority places heavy emphasis on Great Northern 's characterization of rights of way under the 1875 Act as "easements," rather than "limited fees." When an easement is abandoned, the majority reasons, it is extinguished; in effect, it reverts to the owner of the underlying estate, rather than to its original grantor. Ante, at 1265 - 1266. For that reason, the majority concludes, "basic common law principles" require us to retreat from our prior holdings that railroad rights of way entail an implied possibility of reverter *114to the original grantor-the United States-should the right of way cease to be used by a railroad for its intended purpose. Ante, at 1265 - 1266.
But federal and state decisions in this area have not historically depended on "basic common law principles." To the contrary, this Court and others have long recognized that in the context of railroad rights of way, traditional property terms like "fee" and "easement" do not neatly track common-law definitions. In Stringham, the Court articulated ways in which rights of ways bear attributes both of easements and fees, explaining that "[t]he right of way granted by [the 1875 Act] and similar acts is neither a mere easement, *1271nor a fee simple absolute."
Today's opinion dispenses with these teachings. Although the majority canvasses the special role railroads played in the development of our Nation, it concludes that we are bound by the common-law definitions that apply to more typical property. In doing so, it ignores the sui generis nature of railroad rights of way. That Great Northern *115referred to a right of way granted under the 1875 Act as an "easement" does not derail the Court's previous unequivocal pronouncements that rights of way under the Act are "made on an implied condition of reverter." Stringham,
B
Not only does Great Northern fail to support the majority's conclusion; significant aspects of Great Northern 's reasoning actually support the contrary view. In that case, the Court relied heavily on Congress' policy shift in the early 1870's away from bestowing extravagant " 'subsidies in public lands to railroads and other corporations.' "
As in Great Northern , moreover, the purpose of the 1875 Act supports the Government. Congress passed the Act, we noted, "to permit the construction of railroads through public lands" and thus to "enhance their value and hasten their settlement."
Further, Great Northern relied on the conventional rule that "a grant is to be resolved favorably to a sovereign *116grantor,"
III
The majority notes that in Great Northern , the United States took the position that rights of way granted to railroads are easements. Ante, at 1264. In the majority's view, because the Great Northern Court adopted that position "in full," it is unfair for the Government to backtrack on that position now. Ante, at 1264.
Even assuming that it is an injustice for the Government to change positions on an issue over a 70-year period, it is not clear that such a change in position happened here. Yes, the Government argued in Great Northern that a right of way was an "easement." It proposed, however, that the right of way may well have had "some of the attributes of a fee." Brief for United States in Great Northern R. Co. v. United States, O.T. 1941, No. 149, pp. 36-37. The Government contended that it is " 'not important whether the interest or estate passed be considered an easement or a limited fee,' " observing that an easement "may be held in fee determinable." Id., at 35-36 (quoting United States v. Big Horn Land & Cattle Co.,
* * *
Since 1903, this Court has held that rights of way were granted to railroads with an implied possibility of reverter to the United States. Regardless of whether these rights of way are labeled "easements" or "fees," nothing in Great Northern overruled that conclusion. By changing course today, the Court undermines the legality of thousands of miles of former rights of way that the public now enjoys as means of transportation and recreation. And lawsuits challenging the conversion of former rails to recreational trails alone may well cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Dept. of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Div., FY 2014 Performance Budget, Congressional Submission, p. 7, http://www.justice. gov/jmd/2014justification/pdf/enrd-justification.pdf (visited Mar. 7, 2014, and available in Clerk of Court's case file).