The Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico case in 1907 revolved around a dispute over the ownership of certain properties located in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The Municipality claimed that they were public property while the Roman Catholic Church asserted it was church property based on Spanish law before American acquisition. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the church, stating that under Spanish law at the time when America acquired Puerto Rico following the Treaty of Paris (1898), these properties belonged to and were administered by religious entities such as parishes or missions rather than being considered public property owned by municipalities or provinces. Therefore, upon transfer from Spain to America, these assets should have been recognized as belonging to their respective churches unless there had been an explicit legal process transferring them into public ownership prior to this point - which there hadn't been.

In the dissenting opinion for Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., joined by Justices David Brewer and Edward White, argued that the majority's decision was based on a misinterpretation of Spanish law. They contended that under Spanish law, which was applicable at the time when Puerto Rico became part of U.S territory following the Treaty of Paris in 1898, municipalities did not have ownership rights over church properties but merely held them as trustees for religious purposes. The dissenting justices believed that this trust relationship continued even after Puerto Rico came under American control and thus disagreed with the majority's view that these properties had become public property owned by municipalities upon cessation to U.S rule. They also criticized the majority for relying heavily on an 1887 Royal Order from Spain regarding ecclesiastical property without considering its proper context within broader Spanish legal principles.