The Olinde Rodrigues case in 1898 revolved around a dispute over the payment of wages to seamen. The ship, "Olinde Rodrigues," was owned by French citizens and registered under the French flag. While it was docked at New Orleans, some crew members who were also French citizens filed a suit against the ship's owners for unpaid wages. The defendants argued that U.S courts had no jurisdiction over this matter as both parties involved were foreign nationals and their contract was governed by French law. However, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs stating that U.S courts did have jurisdiction since maritime law is part of international law which all nations are bound to enforce irrespective of nationality or location where contracts are made. Therefore, any disputes arising from such contracts can be adjudicated upon by any competent court where a vessel may be found or brought for justice.

In the dissenting opinion for The Olinde Rodrigues case, Justice Harlan argued that the majority's decision to apply maritime law was incorrect. He believed that it should be a matter of state law because the incident occurred within a harbor and not on open sea. According to him, harbors are under states' jurisdiction and therefore any incidents occurring there should fall under state laws rather than federal maritime laws. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's interpretation of what constitutes "navigable waters," arguing that this term refers only to waters where interstate or international commerce occurs regularly. In his view, applying maritime law in such cases would unnecessarily expand federal jurisdiction at the expense of states' rights.