In the 1953 case Lemke v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled on an issue related to bankruptcy fraud. The petitioner, William F. Lemke, was convicted of concealing assets from his trustee during a bankruptcy proceeding and appealed his conviction on the grounds that he had not been properly indicted by a grand jury as required by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. He argued that because some members of his grand jury were selected from voter registration lists which excluded certain groups (namely non-taxpayers), it did not represent a fair cross-section of community peers and thus violated his rights under federal law and constitutionally guaranteed due process. The Supreme Court disagreed with Lemke's argument in a unanimous decision affirming his conviction. It held that while there may have been imperfections in how jurors were chosen for service, these did not rise to such level as to invalidate indictments made by those juries or violate constitutional protections against discrimination in juror selection processes.

In the dissenting opinion for Lemke v. United States, Justice William O. Douglas argued that the majority's decision to uphold Lemke's conviction under a statute prohibiting false statements about banks was an overreach of federal authority and violated principles of federalism. He contended that the law in question was intended to protect national banking institutions from fraudulent practices, not to regulate all forms of communication related to banking matters as interpreted by the majority. Furthermore, he emphasized that there were no allegations or evidence suggesting any harm or potential harm caused by Mr.Lemke’s actions towards any federally insured bank which could justify such broad interpretation and application of this law on him. Therefore, according to Justice Douglas' view, it is inappropriate for federal authorities to intervene in what should be considered a local matter unless there are clear implications for interstate commerce or other significant national interests at stake.