In the 1906 case of Lowrey v. Hawaii, the United States Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving land ownership in Hawaii. The plaintiff, Frank S. Lowrey, was contesting a lower court's decision that had denied him title to certain lands in Honolulu which he claimed under a royal patent issued by Kamehameha III in 1852. The defendant was the Territory of Hawaii who argued that these lands were public and not private property as they were part of an ahupua'a (a traditional Hawaiian division of land). In its ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision and sided with Hawaii stating that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that these lands were intended to be private property when granted by Kamehameha III. Therefore, it held that such properties remained government-owned unless explicitly privatized through royal patents or other official acts.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Lowrey v. Hawaii, 1906, argued that the Supreme Court should not have jurisdiction over this matter as it pertains to a state's internal affairs. The justice contended that the Hawaiian Organic Act did not grant federal courts authority to intervene in local tax disputes and therefore, they believed that Mr. Lowrey's claim was invalid under federal law. They also expressed concern about setting a precedent where individuals could bypass state courts and bring their grievances directly to federal court without first exhausting all available remedies at the state level. This would undermine states' rights and disrupt our system of dual sovereignty between states and the national government.