District of Columbia v. Heller
E127580
District of Columbia v. Heller is a landmark 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms unconnected with service in a militia.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| District of Columbia v. Heller canonical | 7 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1128465 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: District of Columbia v. Heller Context triple: [Antonin Scalia, notableOpinion, District of Columbia v. Heller]
-
A.
United States v. Lopez
United States v. Lopez is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the first time in decades the Court struck down a federal law for exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, signaling a revival of limits on federal regulatory authority.
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B.
Van Orden v. Perry
Van Orden v. Perry is a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument on Texas State Capitol grounds against an Establishment Clause challenge.
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C.
Maryland v. Wirtz
Maryland v. Wirtz was a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the extension of federal minimum wage and overtime provisions to employees of state-operated schools and hospitals under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
-
D.
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder is a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions required federal preclearance for changes to their voting laws.
-
E.
Dickerson v. United States
Dickerson v. United States is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that reaffirmed the constitutional basis of Miranda warnings and held that Congress could not overrule Miranda v. Arizona by statute.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: District of Columbia v. Heller Target entity description: District of Columbia v. Heller is a landmark 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms unconnected with service in a militia.
-
A.
United States v. Lopez
United States v. Lopez is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the first time in decades the Court struck down a federal law for exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, signaling a revival of limits on federal regulatory authority.
-
B.
Van Orden v. Perry
Van Orden v. Perry is a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument on Texas State Capitol grounds against an Establishment Clause challenge.
-
C.
Maryland v. Wirtz
Maryland v. Wirtz was a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the extension of federal minimum wage and overtime provisions to employees of state-operated schools and hospitals under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
-
D.
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder is a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions required federal preclearance for changes to their voting laws.
-
E.
Dickerson v. United States
Dickerson v. United States is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that reaffirmed the constitutional basis of Miranda warnings and held that Congress could not overrule Miranda v. Arizona by statute.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Second Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ landmark decision ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 2008-03-18 ⓘ |
| citation |
128 S. Ct. 2783
ⓘ
171 L. Ed. 2d 637 ⓘ 554 U.S. 570 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | Second Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2008-06-26 ⓘ |
| decisionType | constitutional interpretation decision ⓘ |
| defendant | District of Columbia ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
John Paul Stevens
ⓘ
Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 07-290 ⓘ |
| fullName | District of Columbia v. Heller self-link ⓘ |
| holding |
The District of Columbia’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment.
ⓘ
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia. ⓘ The requirement that firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional, even when needed for self-defense, violates the Second Amendment. ⓘ |
| impact | established that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home ⓘ |
| joinedByInBreyerDissent |
David H. Souter
ⓘ
John Paul Stevens ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
Clarence Thomas ⓘ John G. Roberts Jr. ⓘ Samuel A. Alito Jr. ⓘ |
| joinedByInStevensDissent |
David H. Souter
ⓘ
Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
constitutionality of handgun ban in the home
ⓘ
individual right to possess firearms ⓘ scope of the Second Amendment ⓘ |
| locationOfDispute | Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Antonin Scalia ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | United States District Court for the District of Columbia ⓘ |
| overturnedLowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in part affirmed, in part reviewed) ⓘ |
| plaintiff | Dick Anthony Heller ⓘ |
| precedentFor | incorporation of Second Amendment in McDonald v. City of Chicago ⓘ |
| relatedCase | McDonald v. City of Chicago ⓘ |
| shortName | Heller ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
District of Columbia handgun ban
ⓘ
firearm registration requirements in the District of Columbia ⓘ |
| topic |
gun control
ⓘ
right to keep and bear arms ⓘ self-defense in the home ⓘ |
| voteDissent | 4 ⓘ |
| voteMajority | 5 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 2008 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: District of Columbia v. Heller Description of subject: District of Columbia v. Heller is a landmark 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms unconnected with service in a militia.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
→
hasLandmarkCase
→
District of Columbia v. Heller
ⓘ
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
→
interpretedIn
→
District of Columbia v. Heller
ⓘ