The U.S. Supreme Court case Dier et al., Individually and as Copartners under the Firm Name of E.D. Dier & Company, et al., v. Banton, District Attorney of the County of New York, et al., 1922 revolved around a conflict between theater ticket brokers and a state law that limited their ability to resell tickets at prices above face value (also known as "ticket scalping"). The plaintiffs argued that this law violated their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause by interfering with their freedom to contract and conduct business. However, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of such laws on public welfare grounds - arguing that states have broad power to regulate businesses in order to protect consumers from exploitation or unfair practices. This decision affirmed states' authority over economic regulation within their borders.

In the dissenting opinion for Dier et al. v. Banton, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., joined by Justices Louis Brandeis and Harlan Fiske Stone, argued that the state of New York had a legitimate interest in regulating ticket prices to prevent price gouging and protect consumers from exploitation. They disagreed with the majority's view that such regulation violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it interfered with private contractual relationships between theater owners and ticket brokers. The dissenters believed that this was not an arbitrary or unreasonable exercise of state power but rather a valid use of its police powers to promote public welfare. They also noted that if every law affecting contracts were held unconstitutional under due process grounds, then most regulatory legislation would be invalidated which they deemed absurd.