In the case of Camp et al. v. Gress in 1918, the United States Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving property rights and taxation. The plaintiffs, Camp and others, were owners of land located within a drainage district in Louisiana who challenged an assessment for benefits made by commissioners appointed under state law to oversee such districts. They argued that their properties had not been benefited but rather damaged by improvements made to facilitate drainage and thus they should not be subjected to additional taxes intended to cover these costs. The court held that if there was any benefit at all from the improvement works then it would justify some level of tax assessment against those lands which are situated within the boundaries of said district; however, this does not mean that every piece of land must necessarily derive equal or proportionate advantage from such improvements. The justices also noted that while courts may intervene when assessments are fraudulent or so arbitrary as to infringe upon constitutional rights, they generally do not have jurisdiction over matters related purely to valuation judgments made by duly authorized officials acting within their legal authority.

In the dissenting opinion for Camp et al. v. Gress, Justice Holmes disagreed with the majority's interpretation of Georgia state law regarding property tax assessments and their constitutionality under the Fourteenth Amendment. He argued that there was no violation of due process or equal protection because all properties in Fulton County were assessed at 40% of their fair market value uniformly, as required by state law. The fact that other counties may have used different assessment ratios did not constitute discrimination within Fulton County itself according to him. Furthermore, he contended that it was not the role of federal courts to interfere in matters concerning a state's internal taxation system unless clear violations could be proven beyond doubt - something which he believed had not been done in this case.