In the 1903 case of Chandler v. Dix, the United States Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving inheritance and property rights. The appellant, Chandler, was an heir to a large estate that had been left in trust for his mother by her first husband. Upon her death, it was stipulated that any remaining assets would be divided among her children from both marriages. However, when she passed away prematurely while some of these assets were still tied up in litigation (the "Dix" suit), there arose disagreement over who should inherit them - specifically whether they should go to all of her children or only those from her first marriage. The lower courts initially sided with the latter interpretation but this decision was appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court which reversed it. They held that since these disputed funds were part of his mother's general estate at time of death and not specifically set aside as part of the original trust agreement between herself and first husband (i.e., they weren't directly inherited from him), then they should indeed be shared equally among all offspring regardless their paternity.

In the dissenting opinion for Chandler v. Dix, Justice Harlan disagreed with the majority's decision to uphold a Vermont law that allowed towns to impose taxes on non-resident property owners at higher rates than resident property owners. He argued that this was a clear violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law regardless of their state residency status. According to Justice Harlan, it is fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional for states to discriminate against non-residents in tax matters simply because they do not reside within its borders. He believed that such discriminatory practices undermine national unity by creating unnecessary divisions between residents and non-residents and discourage interstate commerce by imposing additional financial burdens on out-of-state businesses or individuals who own properties in different states.