In Kansas Endowment Association v. Kansas, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether the state of Kansas had the right to tax the property of a charitable organization. The Kansas Endowment Association was a charitable organization that had been established to provide educational and medical assistance to the citizens of Kansas. The state of Kansas had passed a law that imposed a tax on the property of the Association. The Association argued that the tax was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The Supreme Court held that the tax was constitutional. The Court reasoned that the tax was not discriminatory because it applied to all property owners in the state, regardless of their charitable status. The Court also noted that the tax was not excessive and that it was necessary to fund the state's public services. The Court concluded that the tax was a valid exercise of the state's power to tax and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

In Kansas Endowment Association v. Kansas, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state law that allowed for the taxation of certain endowments held by religious organizations violated the Constitution's prohibition against laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting free exercise thereof. The majority opinion found that while it may be true that taxing these endowments would have some effect on religious organizations, this did not amount to a violation of either clause in question and thus upheld the law. In dissent, Justice Harlan argued that such taxation constituted an unconstitutional burden on religious freedom because it interfered with those religions' ability to use their funds as they saw fit without government interference. He further noted that if states were able to tax these types of endowments then they could also impose other restrictions which would effectively limit how much money churches had available for their own purposes and thereby interfere with their right to freely practice religion as guaranteed by both clauses in question.