Patterson v. McLean Credit Union
E165272
Patterson v. McLean Credit Union is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowly interpreted federal employment discrimination protections, prompting Congress to expand and clarify those rights in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Patterson v. McLean Credit Union canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1440274 — 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: Patterson v. McLean Credit Union Context triple: [Civil Rights Act of 1991, respondsToCourtDecision, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union]
-
A.
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that first recognized workplace sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination actionable under Title VII.
-
B.
Corrigan v. Buckley
Corrigan v. Buckley is a 1926 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the enforceability of racially restrictive covenants in property deeds, paving the way for widespread legalized housing segregation until later overturned in effect by subsequent civil rights rulings.
-
C.
Argersinger v. Hamlin
Argersinger v. Hamlin is a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the right to counsel to defendants in misdemeanor cases that may result in imprisonment.
-
D.
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that Congress may, under its Fourteenth Amendment enforcement powers, authorize private lawsuits for money damages against state governments despite Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity.
-
E.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
- 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: Patterson v. McLean Credit Union Target entity description: Patterson v. McLean Credit Union is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowly interpreted federal employment discrimination protections, prompting Congress to expand and clarify those rights in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
-
A.
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that first recognized workplace sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination actionable under Title VII.
-
B.
Corrigan v. Buckley
Corrigan v. Buckley is a 1926 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the enforceability of racially restrictive covenants in property deeds, paving the way for widespread legalized housing segregation until later overturned in effect by subsequent civil rights rulings.
-
C.
Argersinger v. Hamlin
Argersinger v. Hamlin is a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the right to counsel to defendants in misdemeanor cases that may result in imprisonment.
-
D.
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that Congress may, under its Fourteenth Amendment enforcement powers, authorize private lawsuits for money damages against state governments despite Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity.
-
E.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
employment discrimination case ⓘ |
| allegation |
discriminatory failure to promote
ⓘ
racial harassment in the workplace ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights law
ⓘ
employment law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1988-12-07 ⓘ |
| citation | 491 U.S. 164 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
John Paul Stevens
ⓘ
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decidedIn | October Term 1988 ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1989-06-15 ⓘ |
| decisionType | 5–4 decision ⓘ |
| dissentBy | Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 87-107 ⓘ |
| effectOnLaw | limited federal remedies for post-formation employment discrimination under § 1981 until 1991 ⓘ |
| fullCaseName | Patterson v. McLean Credit Union self-link ⓘ |
| holding |
42 U.S.C. § 1981 covers discrimination in the making and enforcement of contracts, but not conduct by the employer after the contract relation has been established
ⓘ
failure to promote is actionable under § 1981 only if the promotion would create a new and distinct contractual relationship ⓘ racial harassment relating to conditions of employment is not actionable under § 1981 as then written ⓘ |
| influenced | enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Antonin Scalia
ⓘ
Byron R. White ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| languageOfOpinion | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
racial discrimination in employment
ⓘ
scope of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Anthony M. Kennedy ⓘ |
| overruledInPartByStatute | Civil Rights Act of 1991 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Brenda Patterson ⓘ |
| precedentFor | narrow interpretation of § 1981 prior to 1991 amendments ⓘ |
| raceOfPlaintiff |
Black Americans
ⓘ
surface form:
African American
|
| rearguedDate | 1989-04-26 ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
ⓘ
Runyon v. McCrary ⓘ |
| respondent | McLean Credit Union ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted | 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ⓘ |
| subsequentDevelopment |
Civil Rights Act of 1991
ⓘ
surface form:
Congress expanded § 1981 to cover post-formation discrimination in employment through the Civil Rights Act of 1991
|
| subsequentHistory | partially superseded by statute through Civil Rights Act of 1991 expansion of § 1981 ⓘ |
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: Patterson v. McLean Credit Union Description of subject: Patterson v. McLean Credit Union is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowly interpreted federal employment discrimination protections, prompting Congress to expand and clarify those rights in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.