In the 1909 case Sylvester v. The State of Washington, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving fishing rights in Puget Sound, Washington. The plaintiff, an indigenous American named George Sylvester from the Swinomish Indian Tribe, was arrested for violating state fishing regulations by using a net to catch fish during closed season. He argued that his tribe's treaty with the United States government granted him special fishing privileges which exempted him from these laws. However, this argument was rejected by both lower courts and eventually reached the Supreme Court. The court held that while treaties between Native American tribes and federal government do grant certain exclusive rights to tribal members - such as hunting or fishing on their reservations - they are not immune from state conservation laws when off-reservation unless explicitly stated in those treaties. Therefore it upheld Sylvester’s conviction because he violated state law outside reservation land without any explicit exemption mentioned in his tribe's treaty.

In the dissenting opinion for Sylvester v. The State of Washington, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a law requiring all children in public and private schools to be vaccinated against smallpox violated individual rights. The dissenting justices believed that this mandate infringed upon personal liberty and parental authority without sufficient justification. They contended that while states have broad powers to enact laws for public health, these powers are not absolute and must respect constitutional limits on government intrusion into personal life. In their view, compulsory vaccination represented an overreach of state power because it forced individuals to undergo a medical procedure against their will without clear evidence of its necessity or effectiveness in preventing disease spread. Furthermore, they expressed concern about potential abuses of such mandates by authorities who might use them as tools for social control rather than genuine health measures.