(1) Open http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/10658 (2) See how the behavior is inconsistent if the <span> is an inline vs. if it's a block. It seems like WebKit fails to create a proper stacking context for the inline, or the background is painted in the wrong order. The block behavior seems correct since z-index on the span creates a stacking context (just like opacity or other similar properties). FWIW this caused a compat issue on Firefox: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1789039 Chromium bug: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1359985#c4
<rdar://problem/99666982>