In the United States Supreme Court case of The United States, Plaintiffs in Error v. Walter Jones, Administrator de Bonis Non of Benjamin G. Orr, the court was asked to decide whether a federal district court had jurisdiction over an action brought by a state administrator against citizens from another state for debts owed to his deceased ward's estate. The plaintiff argued that since he was acting as an officer of the State and not as an individual citizen, he should be allowed to bring suit in federal court under diversity jurisdiction. However, the defendant contended that because there were no actual controversies between himself and any other party or parties involved in this dispute - only claims made by one person against another - it did not meet the requirements for diversity jurisdiction set forth by Congress at that time. After considering both sides' arguments carefully, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Jones and held that there was no basis upon which a federal district court could exercise its power over such matters involving purely intrastate disputes between individuals without congressional authorization first being granted explicitly granting such authority.

In this case, the United States argued that a certain tract of land in Georgia was owned by Benjamin G. Orr and should be subject to federal taxation. Walter Jones, Administrator de Bonis Non of Benjamin G. Orr's estate, disagreed and argued that the land had been sold before Mr. Orr died and therefore did not belong to his estate anymore; thus it could not be taxed by the federal government as part of his estate. The Supreme Court sided with Jones' argument because there was evidence presented showing that Mr. Orr had indeed sold the property prior to his death and so it no longer belonged to him or his estate at the time he passed away; therefore it could not be taxed as part of his assets under federal law since he no longer owned them at death.