In the case of Cate et al. v. Beasley et al., 1936, the United States Supreme Court dealt with a dispute over land ownership in Tennessee. The plaintiffs, Cate and others, claimed that they had purchased certain lands from the state which were part of an area known as "Cherokee Indian Lands". However, their claim was contested by Beasley and others who argued that these lands were not subject to sale by the state because they belonged to Cherokee Indians under various treaties made between them and the federal government. The court ruled in favor of Beasley and his party stating that according to previous rulings on similar cases involving Indian lands; such territories could only be disposed off through direct negotiations with tribes or via Congressional action rather than being sold off by individual states where those lands are located.

In the dissenting opinion for Cate et al. v. Beasley et al., it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a Tennessee law requiring all voters in primary elections to pay a poll tax violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee equal protection under law and prohibit racial discrimination in voting rights respectively. The dissenting justices contended that while states have broad powers to regulate their own electoral processes, these powers do not extend to enacting laws that effectively disenfranchise certain groups of citizens based on their ability or inability to pay a tax - an action they viewed as tantamount to creating wealth-based qualifications for voting. They further asserted that such laws disproportionately impact African Americans and other minority communities who are less likely able afford paying this tax, thereby undermining their right vote; hence violating principles of equality embedded within constitution.