In the case of Reetz, Commissioner of Fish and Game of Alaska, et al. v. Bozanich et al., 1969, the U.S Supreme Court was asked to decide on a dispute over fishing rights in Alaskan waters. The appellants were non-residents who challenged an Alaskan statute that allowed only residents to fish for salmon during certain periods and in specific areas. They argued this violated their privileges and immunities as U.S citizens under Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution which prohibits states from discriminating against citizens from other states. The court ruled in favor of Alaska's right to regulate its fisheries by upholding the state law that restricted commercial salmon fishing licenses to state residents during peak seasons or within designated waters. The decision emphasized that while all Americans have equal rights across every state under Article IV’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, these rights do not extend beyond fundamental matters such as livelihoods or property ownership; they don't cover local interests like conservation measures where a State may validly prioritize its own citizens.

In the dissenting opinion for Reetz v. Bozanich, Justice William O. Douglas argued that the majority's decision was a violation of equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. He contended that Alaska's law, which allowed only residents to commercially fish in certain areas during specific times, unfairly discriminated against non-residents by denying them an opportunity to earn their livelihoods from these waters. According to him, this case wasn't about conservation or preservation of resources but rather economic discrimination based on residency status - something he believed was unconstitutional and unjustifiable under any circumstances. Furthermore, he pointed out that there were other less discriminatory ways available for managing fishing resources without infriting upon individual rights such as issuing licenses on a first-come-first-serve basis or limiting total catch per person irrespective of their residential status.