In the case of Florida et al. v. Long et al., 1987, the U.S Supreme Court dealt with a dispute over land ownership between private parties and the state of Florida. The issue at hand was whether submerged lands in Amelia Island were privately owned or belonged to the state under its sovereignty upon admission into Union in 1845. The court ruled that when Florida became a state, it gained title to all submerged lands unless they had been explicitly relinquished by an act of Congress prior to that date. Since there was no such act regarding Amelia Island's submerged lands, they were deemed property of the State of Florida by default as per common law principles applied during admission into Union.

In the dissenting opinion for Florida et al. v. Long et al., it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a state law requiring mandatory retirement of certain public employees at age 70, despite federal legislation prohibiting such discrimination, undermined Congress' authority and intent in passing the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The dissenters contended that while states have rights under our federal system, those rights should not supersede federally mandated protections against discriminatory practices based on age. They believed that by allowing Florida to enforce its own contradictory law, the court was effectively enabling states to ignore or circumvent national anti-discrimination policies as they saw fit. This interpretation could potentially weaken other civil rights laws and undermine their enforcement nationwide.