In this case, the United States brought a suit against A. G. Seaman, Superintendent of Public Printing, on behalf of Beverly Tucker. The suit alleged that Seaman had wrongfully refused to accept and print certain documents submitted by Tucker for publication in the Congressional Globe newspaper. The Supreme Court held that Congress had no authority to compel the printing of any document not related to its legislative business or proceedings; thus, it was within Seaman's discretion as superintendent whether or not he accepted such documents for printing in the Congressional Globe newspaper. Furthermore, since there was no contract between Tucker and Seaman regarding payment for his services as printer of these documents, there could be no recovery from him even if he did wrongfully refuse them admission into the paper.

In the United States ex rel. Beverly Tucker v. A.G Seaman, the dissenting opinion argued that Congress had not given authority to the Superintendent of Public Printing to enter into a contract with another party for printing services without first obtaining approval from Congress itself. The majority opinion held that since there was no express prohibition in any law or regulation against such an action, it could be assumed that Congress had implicitly authorized it and thus allowed the Superintendent to enter into contracts as he saw fit. However, Justice McLean dissented on this point and argued that while there may have been no explicit prohibition against entering into such contracts, neither was there any specific authorization granted by Congress either; therefore, according to him it should be presumed that they did not intend for their officers to act beyond their powers unless expressly stated otherwise in a law or regulation passed by them specifically granting permission for such actions. He concluded his dissent by stating “I cannot assent [to]...the doctrine which would clothe executive officers with power so extensive” as allowing them free reign over matters requiring congressional approval without prior consent from said body itself