United States v. Nichols
E399564
United States v. Nichols is one of the 1883 U.S. Supreme Court decisions collectively known as the Civil Rights Cases, which limited federal enforcement of civil rights protections against private discrimination.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| United States v. Nichols canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3932009 — 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: United States v. Nichols Context triple: [The Civil Rights Cases, hasPart, United States v. Nichols]
-
A.
United States v. Eichman
United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
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B.
Lau v. Nichols
Lau v. Nichols is a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools must take affirmative steps to help non-English-speaking students overcome language barriers to ensure equal educational opportunity under federal civil rights law.
-
C.
United States v. Giordano
United States v. Giordano is a U.S. Supreme Court case that clarified the strict procedural requirements for federal wiretap authorizations and limited who may approve such surveillance orders.
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D.
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
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E.
United States v. Classic
United States v. Classic is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded federal authority over primary elections by holding that Congress can regulate primaries when they are an integral part of the electoral process for federal offices.
- 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: United States v. Nichols Target entity description: United States v. Nichols is one of the 1883 U.S. Supreme Court decisions collectively known as the Civil Rights Cases, which limited federal enforcement of civil rights protections against private discrimination.
-
A.
United States v. Eichman
United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
-
B.
Lau v. Nichols
Lau v. Nichols is a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools must take affirmative steps to help non-English-speaking students overcome language barriers to ensure equal educational opportunity under federal civil rights law.
-
C.
United States v. Giordano
United States v. Giordano is a U.S. Supreme Court case that clarified the strict procedural requirements for federal wiretap authorizations and limited who may approve such surveillance orders.
-
D.
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
-
E.
United States v. Classic
United States v. Classic is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded federal authority over primary elections by holding that Congress can regulate primaries when they are an integral part of the electoral process for federal offices.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Civil Rights Cases decision
ⓘ
U.S. Supreme Court case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ federal courts ⓘ |
| category |
1883 in United States case law
ⓘ
U.S. Supreme Court cases on civil rights ⓘ United States Supreme Court cases ⓘ
surface form:
U.S. Supreme Court cases on the Fourteenth Amendment
|
| citation | 13 F. 75 (C.C.D. Kan.) (lower court) ⓘ |
| civilRightsActProvision | equal enjoyment of accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances, and places of public amusement ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Enforcement Clause
ⓘ
surface form:
Enforcement Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Enforcement Clause of the Thirteenth Amendment ⓘ Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ
surface form:
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Thirteenth Amendment ⓘ
surface form:
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
|
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1883 ⓘ |
| enforcementMechanismChallenged | federal criminal penalties for private discrimination in public accommodations ⓘ |
| federalismAspect | restricted congressional power vis-à-vis states and private actors ⓘ |
| historicalContext | post-Reconstruction rollback of federal civil rights enforcement ⓘ |
| holding |
Congress lacked authority under the Fourteenth Amendment to regulate purely private acts of racial discrimination in public accommodations
ⓘ
The Civil Rights Cases (1883) ⓘ
surface form:
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional insofar as it attempted to prohibit private racial discrimination in public accommodations
|
| impact |
contributed to judicial retreat from Reconstruction-era civil rights protections
ⓘ
limited federal power to combat private racial discrimination ⓘ |
| issue |
scope of federal enforcement of civil rights against private individuals
ⓘ
whether Congress could reach private discrimination under the Thirteenth Amendment ⓘ whether denial of equal access to public accommodations by private actors violated the Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
Fourteenth Amendment
ⓘ
Thirteenth Amendment ⓘ civil rights ⓘ federal power over private discrimination ⓘ |
| partOf |
The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
ⓘ
surface form:
Civil Rights Cases
|
| precedentFor | narrow interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment state action requirement ⓘ |
| publicAccommodationType |
inns
ⓘ
places of public amusement ⓘ public conveyances ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Robinson v. Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company
ⓘ
surface form:
Robinson v. Memphis & Charleston Railroad Co.
The Civil Rights Cases (1883) ⓘ
surface form:
The Civil Rights Cases
United States v. Ryan ⓘ United States v. Singleton ⓘ United States v. Stanley ⓘ |
| relatedStatute | Civil Rights Act of 1875 ⓘ |
| result | federal criminal charges under the Civil Rights Act of 1875 could not be sustained ⓘ |
| stateActionDoctrine | reinforced requirement of state action for Fourteenth Amendment violations ⓘ |
| termInCourt | October Term 1882 ⓘ |
| thirteenthAmendmentDoctrine | limited reading of badges and incidents of slavery ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Reconstruction era aftermath ⓘ |
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: United States v. Nichols Description of subject: United States v. Nichols is one of the 1883 U.S. Supreme Court decisions collectively known as the Civil Rights Cases, which limited federal enforcement of civil rights protections against private discrimination.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
The Civil Rights Cases