In the 1943 case of Keefe et al. v. Clark, Drain Commissioner of Oakland County, et al., the Supreme Court ruled on a dispute regarding drainage assessments in Michigan. The plaintiffs were landowners who challenged their local drain commissioner's authority to impose special assessments for drainage improvements without providing them an opportunity to contest these charges before an impartial tribunal. They argued that this violated their due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the constitutionality of Michigan's Drain Code which allowed such procedures as long as there was notice and opportunity for hearing at some stage in proceedings before confirmation of assessment roll by county board or court review after it is confirmed.

In the dissenting opinion for Keefe et al. v. Clark, Drain Commissioner of Oakland County, et al., Justice Frank Murphy argued that the majority's decision was a violation of due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. He contended that Michigan's drain law allowed public officials to arbitrarily and unreasonably impose tax burdens on private property owners without giving them an opportunity to challenge or appeal these decisions in court. According to him, this lack of judicial review made it impossible for affected individuals to protect their constitutional rights against potential abuses by state authorities. Furthermore, he criticized his colleagues' reliance on precedents from previous cases involving similar issues as misguided and inappropriate because they did not adequately address these fundamental concerns about fairness and justice in taxation procedures.