In the case of Schaffer et al. v. United States in 1959, the Supreme Court ruled on a matter concerning federal income tax evasion charges against two individuals, Mr. and Mrs. Schaffer. The couple had been convicted for evading taxes by falsely stating their income from their liquor business between 1946 and 1948 as less than it actually was; they appealed this conviction to the Supreme Court arguing that there were errors made during their trial which violated their rights under the Fifth Amendment. The court rejected these arguments and upheld the convictions, finding no violation of constitutional rights or procedural error significant enough to warrant overturning them. They determined that while some evidence may have been admitted erroneously at trial, it did not result in substantial harm or prejudice towards defendants' case due to its cumulative nature with other validly admitted evidence. Furthermore, regarding defendants' claim about being compelled to testify against themselves (a violation of Fifth Amendment), court held that government's use of net worth method (comparing increase in taxpayer's net worth plus expenditures with reported taxable income) didn't force them into proving sources of nontaxable funds but rather placed burden on government itself - thus not violating any constitutional protections.

In the dissenting opinion for Schaffer et al. v. United States, Justice Brennan disagreed with the majority's interpretation of Section 2(b) of the Bank Robbery Act and argued that it should not be applied to cases where no actual or threatened force was used in committing a bank robbery. He contended that Congress intended this provision to apply only when violence or intimidation is employed during a bank heist, as indicated by its legislative history and wording. Furthermore, he believed that applying this section to non-violent offenses would lead to disproportionate sentencing since both violent and non-violent offenders would face similar penalties under federal law despite their crimes' differing severity levels.