The case Graham et al. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen in 1949 revolved around a dispute between the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLF&E) union and several non-union employees who were denied membership due to their race, violating their rights under the Railway Labor Act. The BLF&E was responsible for representing all workers, regardless of whether they were members or not, but had been discriminating against African American workers by denying them membership while still collecting dues from them. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that as an exclusive bargaining representative under the Railway Labor Act, BLF&E could not discriminate based on race when it came to union membership because this would violate its duty to represent all employees fairly.

In the dissenting opinion for Graham et al. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, Justice Frankfurter argued that the court had overstepped its bounds by intervening in a labor dispute and making determinations about union membership qualifications - an area he felt was better left to Congress or administrative agencies with more expertise in labor relations. He believed that courts should not interfere unless there is clear evidence of unlawful conduct or infringement on individual rights, neither of which he saw present in this case. Furthermore, he expressed concern about the potential implications of this decision on future cases involving internal union affairs and cautioned against judicial intrusion into such matters without explicit legislative guidance.