. Coyne v. Union Pacific Railway Co. was a case heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1895. The case involved a dispute between the Union Pacific Railway Company and the Coyne family over the ownership of a piece of land in Nebraska. The Coyne family had been living on the land for several years and had made improvements to it, but the Union Pacific Railway Company claimed that they had acquired the land through a federal land grant. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the Coyne family, holding that the Union Pacific Railway Company had not acquired the land through the federal land grant and that the Coyne family was the rightful owner of the land. The Court also held that the Coyne family was entitled to compensation for the improvements they had made to the land. This case established the principle that the federal government cannot take private property without just compensation.

. In the case of Coyne v. Union Pacific Railway Co., Justice Harlan delivered a dissenting opinion in which he argued that the majority had misinterpreted and misapplied existing law to reach their conclusion. He contended that under the Interstate Commerce Act, Congress had given railroads broad authority to set rates for freight shipments, including those involving interstate commerce, and that this power could not be limited by state laws or regulations without express congressional authorization. Furthermore, he argued that even if such an authorization existed in this particular instance (which it did not), it would still be unconstitutional as applied because it violated both due process and equal protection principles enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. In his view, any attempt by states to regulate railroad rates must take into account both public interest considerations as well as private interests affected by such regulation; otherwise they are invalid on constitutional grounds.