In the Clarke v. McDade case of 1896, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute over land ownership in Mississippi. The plaintiff, Clarke, claimed that he had purchased lands from an individual who was not legally entitled to sell them because they were part of a Choctaw Indian Reservation and therefore under federal jurisdiction. However, defendant McDade argued that these lands had been ceded by the Choctaw Nation to the United States government through treaties signed in 1830 and 1832 respectively; thus making them available for public sale. The court sided with McDade's argument stating that once these treaties were ratified by Congress, it effectively extinguished any claim or title held by Native American tribes over those lands which then became subject to state laws regarding property rights and transactions.

In the dissenting opinion for Clarke v. McDade, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a state law requiring all voters to be literate was fundamentally unjust and discriminatory. The dissenting justices believed that literacy tests were being used as a tool to disenfranchise African American voters in particular, thereby violating their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. They also pointed out inconsistencies in how these laws were applied, with white voters often being given easier tests or exempted from testing altogether while black voters faced more stringent requirements. Furthermore, they contended that such laws effectively punished individuals for lack of education rather than any wrongdoing on their part - an outcome they considered both unfair and contrary to democratic principles.