The U.S. Supreme Court case Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder et al., 1984 revolved around the issue of copyright renewal rights for a song composed in 1927 by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk called "Mean to Me". The primary question was whether the right to renew a copyright resided with the author's estate or his assignee (the person to whom he had transferred his rights). In this case, Ahlert’s widow renewed the copyright as per law after her husband’s death and later sold it to Mills Music, Inc. However, when one of Turk's heirs also attempted to renew it years later claiming that they were entitled under Copyright Act provisions because Ahlert predeceased Turk (who died without having made an assignment), conflict arose over who held valid title. The court ruled in favor of Mills Music, stating that once an author dies before the renewal period arrives but has already assigned their interest in advance; then upon such death - even if prior than co-author(s) - those interests vest immediately into said assignee rather than revert back onto any surviving authors or their heirs.

In the dissenting opinion for Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder et al., Justice White disagreed with the majority's interpretation of Section 304(c) of the Copyright Act. He argued that this section does not allow authors to reclaim rights they had previously transferred if those rights were later expanded by Congress. According to him, such an interpretation would unfairly penalize copyright owners who had legally acquired their rights under previous laws and could potentially disrupt established business practices in the music industry. Furthermore, he believed that it was not within the Court’s purview to make policy decisions about how best to balance competing interests in copyright law; instead, these issues should be left up to Congress.