Colorado Department of State v. Baca
E41904
Colorado Department of State v. Baca is a U.S. federal court case addressing whether states can remove or sanction presidential electors who refuse to vote in accordance with their state's popular vote in the Electoral College.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Colorado Department of State v. Baca canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T328018 — 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: Colorado Department of State v. Baca Context triple: [Chiafalo v. Washington, isRelatedCaseTo, Colorado Department of State v. Baca]
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A.
Arizona v. United States
Arizona v. United States is a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state authority over immigration enforcement by affirming broad federal power in this area.
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B.
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission is a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled, on narrow grounds, that Colorado officials had shown unconstitutional hostility toward a baker’s religious beliefs when enforcing anti-discrimination laws against his refusal to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
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C.
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that curtailed Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be applied to the states.
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D.
South Dakota v. Dole
South Dakota v. Dole is a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s power to condition federal highway funds on states adopting a minimum drinking age of 21, helping define the scope of the federal spending power.
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E.
DeBoer v. Snyder
DeBoer v. Snyder was a federal court case challenging Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban that became one of the key cases consolidated into the landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
- 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: Colorado Department of State v. Baca Target entity description: Colorado Department of State v. Baca is a U.S. federal court case addressing whether states can remove or sanction presidential electors who refuse to vote in accordance with their state's popular vote in the Electoral College.
-
A.
Arizona v. United States
Arizona v. United States is a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state authority over immigration enforcement by affirming broad federal power in this area.
-
B.
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission is a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled, on narrow grounds, that Colorado officials had shown unconstitutional hostility toward a baker’s religious beliefs when enforcing anti-discrimination laws against his refusal to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
-
C.
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that curtailed Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be applied to the states.
-
D.
South Dakota v. Dole
South Dakota v. Dole is a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s power to condition federal highway funds on states adopting a minimum drinking age of 21, helping define the scope of the federal spending power.
-
E.
DeBoer v. Snyder
DeBoer v. Snyder was a federal court case challenging Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban that became one of the key cases consolidated into the landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States federal court case
ⓘ
constitutional law case ⓘ election law case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
United States constitutional law
ⓘ
United States election law ⓘ |
| background | arose from actions of Colorado presidential electors in the 2016 Electoral College vote ⓘ |
| circuit |
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
ⓘ
surface form:
Tenth Circuit
|
| citation | 935 F.3d 887 ⓘ |
| constitutionalBasisOfHolding | Electors have a federal constitutional right to exercise discretion in casting their Electoral College votes ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInvoked |
Article II of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2019-08-20 ⓘ |
| holding | the Tenth Circuit held that Colorado could not remove a presidential elector for casting a vote contrary to the state’s popular vote ⓘ |
| issue |
scope of state authority to direct and control electors’ votes
ⓘ
whether a state may remove or sanction a presidential elector who does not vote in accordance with the state’s popular vote ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
Electoral College
ⓘ
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ Article II of the United States Constitution ⓘ
surface form:
U.S. Constitution Article II
faithless electors ⓘ presidential electors ⓘ state power over electors ⓘ |
| location | Colorado ⓘ |
| opinionBy | Judge Carolyn B. McHugh ⓘ |
| originatedFrom |
District of Colorado
ⓘ
surface form:
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
|
| panelJudge |
Judge Carolyn B. McHugh
ⓘ
Judge Jerome A. Holmes ⓘ Judge Mary Beck Briscoe ⓘ |
| partyRoleOfMichaelBaca | Democratic Party presidential elector from Colorado in 2016 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Colorado Department of State ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Chiafalo v. Washington
ⓘ
Ray v. Blair ⓘ |
| relatedTo | 2016 United States presidential election ⓘ |
| respondent |
Michael Baca
ⓘ
other Colorado presidential electors ⓘ |
| result | judgment in favor of elector Michael Baca on key constitutional question ⓘ |
| stateActionChallenged | Colorado’s removal of Baca as an elector and nullification of his attempted vote ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
nullification of electoral votes
ⓘ
removal of electors ⓘ state enforcement of elector pledges ⓘ |
| subsequentHistory |
Tenth Circuit judgment effectively superseded by the Supreme Court’s decision in Chiafalo v. Washington
ⓘ
certiorari granted sub nom. Colorado Department of State v. Baca and consolidated into Chiafalo v. Washington at the U.S. Supreme Court ⓘ |
| supremeCourtCitation | 140 S. Ct. 2316 (via Chiafalo v. Washington) ⓘ |
| supremeCourtDisposition | U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit’s reasoning in Chiafalo v. Washington ⓘ |
| triggeringEvent | Michael Baca attempted to cast an electoral vote for John Kasich instead of Hillary Clinton ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 2019 ⓘ |
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: Colorado Department of State v. Baca Description of subject: Colorado Department of State v. Baca is a U.S. federal court case addressing whether states can remove or sanction presidential electors who refuse to vote in accordance with their state's popular vote in the Electoral College.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.