The U.S. Supreme Court case Weiss v. Wiener in 1928 revolved around the issue of tax liability on a deceased's estate. The decedent, Mr. Wiener, had purchased life insurance policies and transferred them to his wife while retaining some incidents of ownership such as the right to change beneficiaries or surrender the policy for its cash value. After his death, these retained rights were included in calculating his gross estate for federal taxation purposes under Section 302(g) of Revenue Act of 1926 by Collector Weiss which Mrs.Wiener contested. The court ruled that despite Mr.Wiener’s retention of certain rights over the policies, they should not be considered part of his gross estate because he did not retain any beneficial interest in them during his lifetime nor could exercise those rights without consent from Mrs.Wiener due to state laws governing marital property rights at that time (community property law). Therefore, it was held that inclusion into taxable estate was inappropriate and favored Mrs.Wierner's argument.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Weiss v. Wiener argued that the majority's decision was inconsistent with previous rulings and interpretations of tax law. The dissenters believed that the income from a trust, which had been created by a deceased individual and distributed to his widow, should not be considered part of her gross income for tax purposes. They contended that this interpretation was consistent with both legislative intent and legal precedent regarding estate taxation. In their view, treating such distributions as taxable income would result in double taxation: first on the estate itself, then again when it is received by beneficiaries. This contradicts established principles designed to prevent such outcomes.