In the United States v. Gleason case of 1899, the Supreme Court ruled on a matter concerning land patents and mining claims in California. The defendant, Gleason, had been granted a patent for land by the U.S government which was later discovered to contain valuable mineral deposits. A third party claimed that they had established a mining claim on this same piece of land prior to Gleason's patent being issued but after his application was filed. The court held that because the third party did not take any legal action until after Gleason's patent was issued, their claim could not be upheld as it violated federal law requiring such disputes to be settled before a patent is granted. Therefore, even though there were minerals present at the time of his application and subsequent granting of his title deed or "patent", he still retained full rights over them since no one else legally contested these rights during this period.

In the dissenting opinion for United States v. Gleason, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a conviction based on evidence obtained through an allegedly illegal search and seizure violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the defendant. The dissent contended that allowing such evidence to be used in court effectively condoned unlawful police conduct and undermined citizens' constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. It was further asserted that this ruling could set a dangerous precedent, potentially leading to widespread abuse of power by law enforcement officials under the guise of criminal investigation. The minority justices believed that any evidence obtained illegally should be excluded from trial proceedings as per "exclusionary rule", regardless of its relevance or reliability, in order to maintain integrity within judicial system and respect individual liberties guaranteed by Constitution.