In Felder v. Casey et al., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws cannot interfere with federal civil rights claims, specifically those brought under 42 U.S.C §1983, which provides a remedy for violations of constitutional rights by persons acting under color of state law. The case involved a Wisconsin statute requiring plaintiffs to provide notice within 120 days of an injury before filing suit against a government entity or employee; this was challenged by Earl Felder who had filed a lawsuit alleging police brutality more than two years after the incident occurred without providing such notice. The court held in favor of Felder on grounds that applying the Wisconsin notice-of-claim statute to §1983 actions would hinder litigants' ability to bring federal civil rights lawsuits and thus contravene Congress's intent in enacting §1983.

In the dissenting opinion for Felder v. Casey, Justice White argued that the majority's decision to invalidate Wisconsin's notice-of-claim statute was incorrect and inconsistent with previous rulings of the Court. He contended that this law did not conflict with federal civil rights statutes or undermine their effectiveness but rather provided a reasonable procedural requirement for bringing lawsuits against state entities. Furthermore, he asserted that such laws were common in many states and had been upheld by lower courts as valid exercises of state power to regulate litigation within their jurisdictions. Therefore, according to him, there was no compelling reason for the Supreme Court to interfere with these established practices and overturn precedent without clear evidence of constitutional violation or legislative intent from Congress.