In the case of Chaffee County v. Potter, 1891, the U.S Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether a county in Colorado could tax certain mining properties owned by non-residents. The plaintiff, Chaffee County, argued that it had the right to levy taxes on these properties under state law. However, defendant Potter contended that this taxation violated his rights as a non-resident property owner and was therefore unconstitutional. The court ruled in favor of Chaffee County stating that while states cannot impose taxes on federal lands directly or indirectly through taxing improvements made thereon by individuals for their own use and benefit; they can tax possessory interests in such lands when held and used for purposes not connected with any governmental function of the United States. Therefore, counties within those states have authority to assess taxes against individual miners working claims upon public mineral land within their boundaries.

In the dissenting opinion for Chaffee County v. Potter, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a tax assessment on mining claims in Colorado contradicted previous rulings of the court and violated principles of fairness and justice. The dissenting justices believed that under existing laws, mining claims were not subject to taxation until they had been patented by the federal government. They contended that taxing unpatented mining claims amounted to double taxation since miners already paid an annual labor requirement as part of their claim maintenance obligations. Furthermore, they asserted that such taxes could discourage prospectors from exploring new territories or developing their mines due to financial constraints imposed by these additional costs. Therefore, this minority view held that unpatented mining properties should be exempted from local property taxes until after patent issuance when ownership is officially transferred from public lands into private hands.