In the 1944 case of Alabama State Federation of Labor et al. v. McAdory et al., the United States Supreme Court dealt with a challenge to an Alabama law that regulated labor unions' activities and required them to disclose their membership lists and financial records. The plaintiffs, various labor organizations, argued that this law violated their constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments by infringing on their freedom of association and equal protection rights. However, the Supreme Court dismissed these claims due to procedural issues rather than addressing them on merit. The court ruled that it was premature for federal courts to intervene because no actual harm had occurred yet - no union had been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution under this new state law at the time when they filed suit seeking its invalidation as unconstitutional. Therefore, there was not a ripe "case or controversy" justifying judicial review in accordance with Article III of U.S Constitution which limits federal courts' jurisdiction only over real disputes arising from concrete facts rather than hypothetical situations or potential future harms.

In the dissenting opinion for Alabama State Federation of Labor et al. v. McAdory et al., Justice Robert H. Jackson argued that the court should not have dismissed the case, but rather should have decided on its merits. He believed that by dismissing it, they were avoiding their duty to protect constitutional rights and allowing a state law to potentially infrive upon those rights without proper judicial review. The law in question was an anti-picketing statute which he felt could be used as a tool of economic pressure against labor unions, thus violating their First Amendment right to free speech and assembly. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's assertion that there was no real controversy or immediate threat due to lack of enforcement action taken under this statute at present time; instead arguing that mere existence of such laws can create chilling effect on protected activities even if not currently enforced.