In the case of Lemke, as Attorney General of the State of North Dakota, et al. v. Omer Farmers Elevator Company et al., 1921, the U.S Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether a state law that regulated grain elevator rates violated due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The state law in question was enacted by North Dakota and set maximum charges for grain storage and handling services provided by public elevators within its jurisdiction. The respondents, several grain elevator companies operating in North Dakota including Omer Farmers Elevator Company, argued that this regulation infringed upon their constitutional right to earn a reasonable return on their investments. The Supreme Court ruled against the State of North Dakota stating that while states have broad powers to regulate businesses affecting public interest (such as utilities), they cannot do so at expense of private property rights without providing just compensation or allowing an opportunity for judicial review before implementation - both conditions were not met in this instance according to court's interpretation. Therefore it held that such rate-setting legislation constituted an unconstitutional deprivation of property without due process.

In the dissenting opinion for Lemke v. Omer Farmers Elevator Company, Justice McReynolds disagreed with the majority's decision to strike down North Dakota’s legislation regulating grain elevators as unconstitutional. He argued that states should have the right to regulate businesses within their borders, especially when they serve a public function like grain elevators do in an agricultural state such as North Dakota. According to him, these regulations were not arbitrary or discriminatory but aimed at preventing abuses and ensuring fair prices for farmers who had few alternatives for selling their crops. He believed that this was a matter of local concern and did not violate any federal laws or constitutional provisions; therefore it should be left up to individual states' discretion rather than being decided by federal courts.