In the Singleton et al. v. Cheek et al., 1931 case, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving land ownership and inheritance rights in Mississippi. The plaintiffs were heirs of J.J. Singleton who claimed that they had been deprived of their property without due process by state laws which allowed for an illegitimate child to inherit from his mother but not from his father unless he had formally acknowledged him as his son during his lifetime or through a will after death. They argued this was discriminatory and violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court disagreed with them, ruling that there was no violation because these laws did not discriminate against any particular class since all illegitimate children were treated equally regardless of whether they were seeking to inherit from their mothers or fathers' estates; it simply required different conditions depending on whose estate they sought to claim - either recognition by the father while alive or via testamentary disposition upon death for paternal inheritance versus automatic maternal inheritance rights irrespective of acknowledgment.

In the dissenting opinion for Singleton et al. v. Cheek et al., Justice Stone argued that the majority's decision was inconsistent with previous rulings of the Court and violated principles of federalism by allowing a state court to interfere in matters under federal jurisdiction. He contended that it is not within a state court's power to determine whether or not an individual has been discharged from bankruptcy, as this falls under exclusive jurisdiction of federal courts according to Section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority’s interpretation that discharge in bankruptcy does not extinguish debt but merely releases debtor from liability; instead, he asserted such discharge completely eliminates debts except those explicitly exempted by law. Thus, he believed creditors should have no further claim on assets acquired post-bankruptcy unless specifically provided for in their agreement or allowed by statute.