In the Walker v. City of Hutchinson case in 1956, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving property rights and racial discrimination. The plaintiff, an African American woman named Edna Mae Walker, owned land in Hutchinson, Kansas that was taken by the city under eminent domain laws to build a park and playground. However, she argued that this action was racially motivated as her neighborhood was predominantly black and there were already several parks nearby serving white neighborhoods. She claimed this violated her Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under law. The court sided with Walker stating that if it could be proven that racial motivation led to the seizure of her property then it would indeed constitute a violation of constitutional rights. This ruling set precedent for future cases regarding discriminatory practices in urban planning or housing policies.

In the dissenting opinion for Walker v. City of Hutchinson, Justice Frankfurter argued that the majority's decision to overturn a Kansas Supreme Court ruling was inappropriate because it failed to respect state authority in matters related to local land use and zoning regulations. He contended that there was no clear constitutional violation involved in this case, as the city had acted within its rights under Kansas law when it rezoned a piece of property from residential to commercial use. The fact that this action may have negatively impacted an individual homeowner did not necessarily mean it violated due process or equal protection principles. Furthermore, he expressed concern about federal courts intervening too much in local affairs and potentially undermining states' ability to govern effectively.