In the Southern Pacific Railroad Company v. United States case of 1901, the Supreme Court ruled on a dispute over land grants given to railroad companies by Congress in order to encourage westward expansion. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company claimed that it was entitled to certain lands under an 1866 Act of Congress granting lands for railway construction from California to Oregon. However, these specific parcels had already been reserved by an earlier act for wagon road purposes and were not available when the later grant was made. The government argued that because these lands had been previously reserved, they were excluded from any subsequent grants unless explicitly included. The Supreme Court sided with the U.S Government stating that reservations of public property are never presumed but must be clearly expressed and cannot be overridden without clear indication or explicit language in law indicating such intent. Therefore, since there was no such expression in this case, those particular tracts remained unavailable despite any subsequent legislation.

In the dissenting opinion for Southern Pacific Railroad Company v. United States, 1901, Justice Harlan argued that the majority's decision was a misinterpretation of the Interstate Commerce Act. He contended that Congress intended to regulate all aspects of interstate commerce and not just those related to transportation rates. The majority's narrow interpretation undermined this intention by excluding other forms of discrimination from regulation under the Act. Furthermore, he disagreed with their view that giving free passes or reduced fares to certain individuals did not constitute unfair competition or discrimination against others who paid full price because it still resulted in unequal treatment among customers based on arbitrary criteria rather than merit or need.