In the case of Lightfoot v. United States (1957), the Supreme Court ruled on a matter involving Native American land rights. The plaintiff, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, had inherited restricted Indian lands and later leased them for oil and gas production without approval from the Secretary of Interior as required by law. When she sold her interest in these leases to third parties who subsequently extracted oil and gas from these lands, she was sued by the government for violating federal restrictions on alienation of such property interests. In its decision, however, the Supreme Court held that while it is true that Congress has broad powers over Indian affairs including imposing restrictions upon alienation or lease of tribal lands; this power does not extend to punishing violations thereof with forfeiture unless explicitly stated in legislation itself which wasn't present here. Therefore, they concluded that although Mrs.Lightfoot's actions were unlawful under federal statute governing leasing agreements on restricted Indian Lands; there was no provision allowing government to recover value derived from unauthorized extraction operations conducted therein.

In the dissenting opinion for Lightfoot v. United States, Justice Brennan disagreed with the majority's decision to uphold a conviction based on evidence obtained through an unlawful search and seizure. He argued that this violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the defendant, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement officials. In his view, allowing such evidence to be used in court undermines these constitutional protections and encourages police misconduct. Furthermore, he contended that excluding illegally obtained evidence from trials would not significantly hinder law enforcement efforts as there are other lawful methods available for gathering evidence. Therefore, he believed that upholding this conviction was inconsistent with previous Supreme Court rulings regarding illegal search and seizure cases.