The U.S. Supreme Court case Illinois v. Michigan et al., 1958, involved a dispute over the diversion of water from Lake Michigan into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal by the state of Illinois. The states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York filed complaints against Illinois for violating an earlier decree that limited how much water could be diverted from the Great Lakes system to prevent lowering lake levels which would affect navigation and commerce in other states bordering these lakes. In this case, however, it was found that there had been no substantial injury or threat thereof to any complainant state as a result of increased diversions by Illinois since 1930; hence no modification or enforcement action on previous decrees was warranted at that time.

In the dissenting opinion for Illinois v. Michigan et al., Justice Brennan, joined by Justices Warren and Douglas, argued that the Court should not have dismissed Illinois' complaint against other states over pollution in Lake Michigan. They believed that this case presented a justiciable controversy between states which was appropriate for resolution by the Supreme Court under its original jurisdiction. The dissenting justices disagreed with the majority's view that Congress had preempted state action on interstate water pollution through federal legislation; they contended instead that such laws were intended to supplement rather than supplant state efforts to combat pollution. Furthermore, they asserted that even if federal law did preclude some forms of state action, it did not necessarily bar all remedies available to a complaining state like Illinois in an original suit before the Supreme Court.