In the case of City of Louisville, Kentucky v. Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1911, the Supreme Court ruled on a dispute between a city government and a telephone company over rights to use public streets for laying telecommunication lines. The City of Louisville had granted exclusive rights to another company, Home Telephone Company, which led Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company to sue based on violation of its Fourteenth Amendment rights. The court held that while cities have authority over their streets under state law, they cannot grant exclusive privileges that infringe upon federal constitutional protections against deprivation of property without due process or equal protection under the law. Therefore, it was unconstitutional for Louisville to deny Cumberland access to public spaces solely because it had already granted such access exclusively to another entity.

In the dissenting opinion for the case City of Louisville, Kentucky v. Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company, Justice Holmes argued that the city had a right to control its streets and could therefore regulate or prohibit telephone companies from erecting poles in them. He disagreed with the majority's view that such regulation would violate constitutional rights to property without due process of law. Instead, he asserted that when a company accepts a franchise from a city it also accepts any conditions attached to it - including potential regulations on use of public spaces like streets. Therefore, according to him, if Louisville decided it wanted its streets free from telephone poles as part of an aesthetic or safety initiative then this was within their power as long as they did not discriminate against specific companies or individuals unfairly.