In the Dushane v. Beall case of 1895, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving land ownership in Oregon. The plaintiff, Dushane, claimed that he had purchased a piece of property from an individual who had obtained it through the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 - legislation which granted free land to settlers in Oregon Territory. However, this claim was contested by Beall and other defendants who argued that they were rightful owners due to their inheritance from John McLoughlin (a prominent figure in early Pacific Northwest history), asserting that McLoughlin's title predated the Donation Land Claim Act. The court found for Beall and his co-defendants; Justice Brewer delivered the opinion stating there was no evidence proving any legal transfer or sale of rights from McLoughlin to those whom Dushane claimed as predecessors-in-interests before enactment of said act.

In the dissenting opinion for Dushane v. Beall, Justice Brewer argued that a state's power to regulate commerce should not infringe upon federal authority in matters of interstate trade. He contended that while states have the right to protect their citizens' health and safety, this does not extend to creating regulations that interfere with interstate commerce - a domain reserved exclusively for Congress by the Constitution. In his view, Maryland's law requiring inspection of imported oysters was such an interference as it imposed burdens on out-of-state traders which were not applied equally to local ones. This unequal treatment violated both the Commerce Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution according to him.