In the 1918 case of Whitehead v. Galloway et al., the United States Supreme Court addressed a dispute over land ownership in Oklahoma. The plaintiff, Whitehead, claimed that he had purchased the land from an individual who had received it as part of an allotment under federal law providing for distribution of tribal lands to individual Native Americans. However, this sale was conducted without approval from the Secretary of Interior which was required by law at that time for such transactions involving allotted tribal lands. The defendants argued they were rightful owners because they bought it directly from the government after it declared forfeiture due to non-payment of taxes on said property by previous owner (the same person who sold to Whitehead). The court ruled in favor of defendants stating that even though there might have been irregularities with tax proceedings leading up to forfeiture declaration and subsequent resale by government, these did not affect its validity or legality thus making defendant's claim stronger than plaintiff's unapproved purchase.

In the dissenting opinion for Whitehead v. Galloway, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a lower court ruling which denied an African American man his right to vote in a primary election was incorrect. The dissenting justices believed that this denial constituted a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting rights. They contended that primaries are integral parts of public elections and thus should be subject to federal law prohibiting racial discrimination. Furthermore, they disagreed with the majority's interpretation of state action doctrine - arguing instead that political parties when conducting primaries act as agents of the state and therefore their actions should be considered state actions subject to constitutional scrutiny.