The U.S. Supreme Court case Oregon and California Railroad Company v. United States revolved around a dispute over land grants given to the railroad company by Congress in 1866 for the construction of rail lines from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco, California. The government argued that the railroad had violated terms of its contract which stipulated that unsold lands should be sold to settlers at a fixed price per acre and not held or sold at higher prices for speculative purposes. In 1902, the court ruled in favor of the government stating that any violation of these conditions would result in forfeiture of all granted lands back to public domain regardless if they were directly involved with said violations or not.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Oregon and California Railroad Company v. United States argued that the majority's decision to allow the federal government to reclaim land granted to a railroad company was not supported by precedent or statute. The dissenters believed that once Congress had given land away, it could not take it back unless there were explicit conditions attached at the time of grant, which they did not believe existed in this case. They also disagreed with the majority's interpretation of an 1866 law as allowing for reclamation, arguing instead that this law only applied if a railroad company failed to complete its line within a certain timeframe - something that was not relevant here since construction had been completed on time. Finally, they felt that even if reclamation were possible under some circumstances, it should be done through legal proceedings rather than executive action.