Nugent v. The Supervisors was a case heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1873. The case involved a dispute between the supervisors of a county in Mississippi and a group of citizens who had been denied the right to vote in a local election. The citizens argued that they had been denied their right to vote in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race. The Supreme Court held that the supervisors had violated the Fifteenth Amendment by denying the citizens the right to vote. The Court found that the supervisors had acted with the intent to discriminate against the citizens based on their race, and that this was a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. The Court also held that the supervisors had acted in a manner that was not authorized by the state constitution, and that the citizens had been denied their right to vote without due process of law. The Court's decision in Nugent v. The Supervisors was an important victory for civil rights, as it established that the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race. The decision also established that the state constitution could not be used to deny citizens their right to vote. This case was an important step in the struggle for civil rights in the United States.

In the case of Nugent v. The Supervisors, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state law that allowed for a tax on property held by non-residents was constitutional. Justice Field delivered the dissenting opinion, arguing that such taxation violated both due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. He argued that it would be unfair to impose taxes on people who had no representation in government or any say in how their money is spent; this would amount to taxation without representation which he believed should not be tolerated under any circumstances. Furthermore, he argued that since all persons are entitled to equal protection under the law, then taxing only those who do not reside within a particular jurisdiction violates this principle as well. In conclusion, Justice Field maintained his belief that such laws were unconstitutional and should therefore be struck down by the court.