The U.S. Supreme Court case Fernandez, Collector of Internal Revenue v. Wiener et al., 1945 revolved around the issue of whether or not a decedent's estate could deduct certain taxes paid to the Philippine government from its gross income for federal tax purposes in accordance with Section 162(a) of the Revenue Act of 1936 and Section 812(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. The court ruled against Fernandez, stating that since Philippines was no longer a territory under complete sovereignty and control by United States at time when such taxes were paid, it did not qualify as part 'within' United States as per mentioned sections; hence these payments couldn't be deducted from gross income for federal tax purposes.

In the dissenting opinion for Fernandez v. Wiener, Justice Frankfurter argued that the majority's interpretation of Section 302(c) of the Revenue Act was incorrect. He believed that Congress intended to tax all property passing at death and not just a portion of it as determined by state law. The majority’s decision, he felt, created an unjust system where federal taxes could vary greatly depending on individual state laws rather than being uniformly applied across states as he believed Congress had intended. Furthermore, he disagreed with their view that community property should be treated differently from other types of property in terms of taxation upon death. In his view, this distinction did not exist in the language or intent of the legislation and thus should not have been introduced by judicial interpretation.