In the case of Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company v. Deer (1905), the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the railroad company, overturning a lower court's decision that had awarded damages to Mr. Deer for injuries he sustained while working as a brakeman on one of their trains. The central issue was whether or not the company could be held liable under Alabama state law which made it illegal for railroads to require employees to assume risks associated with their employment. However, Justice Holmes argued that this law did not apply because at the time of his injury, Mr. Deer was performing duties outside those normally expected from him without any direct orders from his superiors - thus he voluntarily assumed additional risk beyond what would typically be required by his job role as a brakeman.

In the dissenting opinion for Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company v. Deer, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a state law requiring railroads to provide separate but equal accommodations for black and white passengers violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The dissenting justices believed that such laws interfered with interstate commerce by imposing undue burdens on railroad companies operating across state lines, which should be regulated exclusively by federal law rather than individual state statutes. They also contended that these segregation laws were inherently discriminatory and thus in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, regardless of whether or not they provided ostensibly "equal" facilities for different races.