Sherbert v. Verner
E12350
Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sherbert v. Verner canonical | 10 |
| U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Sherbert v. Verner | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T61137 — 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: Sherbert v. Verner Context triple: [Free Exercise Clause, interpretedInCase, Sherbert v. Verner]
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Bolling v. Sharpe is a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racial segregation in Washington, D.C. public schools unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
-
C.
United States v. Comstock
United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
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D.
Ware v. Hylton
Ware v. Hylton was a 1796 U.S. Supreme Court case that held federal treaties override conflicting state laws, helping to establish the authority of the national government under the Constitution.
-
E.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
- 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: Sherbert v. Verner Target entity description: Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Bolling v. Sharpe is a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racial segregation in Washington, D.C. public schools unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
-
C.
United States v. Comstock
United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
-
D.
Ware v. Hylton
Ware v. Hylton was a 1796 U.S. Supreme Court case that held federal treaties override conflicting state laws, helping to establish the authority of the national government under the Constitution.
-
E.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ landmark case ⓘ religious freedom case ⓘ |
| appliedTo | state unemployment compensation schemes ⓘ |
| appliesTo | individuals whose religious beliefs conflict with work requirements ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil liberties
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ religion and the law ⓘ |
| burdenFound | substantial burden on religious practice ⓘ |
| characterizedAs | strengthening protections for religious liberty ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtDecision | Earl Warren ⓘ |
| citation | 374 U.S. 398 ⓘ |
| constitutionalClause | Free Exercise Clause ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1963-06-17 ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
John Marshall Harlan II ⓘ
linked to:
John M. Harlan II
|
| doctrineName |
Sherbert compelling interest test
ⓘ
linked to:
Sherbert test
|
| factPattern | Seventh-day Adventist denied unemployment benefits for refusing Saturday work ⓘ |
| fullName | Sherbert v. Verner ⓘ |
| governmentInterestFound | insufficient to justify burden on religion ⓘ |
| holding | The denial of unemployment benefits to a person who refuses to work on her Sabbath violates the Free Exercise Clause absent a compelling state interest. ⓘ |
| influenced |
Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993
ⓘ
linked to:
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| laterLimitedBy | Employment Division v. Smith ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
free exercise of religion
ⓘ
religious discrimination ⓘ unemployment compensation ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| originatingJurisdiction | South Carolina ⓘ |
| petitioner | Adele Sherbert ⓘ |
| precedentFor |
Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
ⓘ
Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida ⓘ Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division ⓘ Wisconsin v. Yoder ⓘ |
| requires |
showing of compelling governmental interest
ⓘ
showing of substantial burden on religious exercise ⓘ use of least restrictive means ⓘ |
| respondent | Verner, Administrator, Employment Security Commission of South Carolina ⓘ |
| standardEstablished | Sherbert test ⓘ |
| standardType | strict scrutiny ⓘ |
| stateActionChallenged | denial of unemployment compensation benefits ⓘ |
| stillCitedFor | strict scrutiny in free exercise cases involving individualized exemptions ⓘ |
| vote | 7-2 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1963 ⓘ |
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: Sherbert v. Verner Description of subject: Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Verner, Administrator, Employment Security Commission of South Carolina
→
namedAsRespondentIn
→
Sherbert v. Verner
ⓘ
Verner, Administrator, Employment Security Commission of South Carolina
→
namedIn
→
U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Sherbert v. Verner
ⓘ
linked to: Sherbert v. Verner
Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
→
relatedCase
→
Sherbert v. Verner
ⓘ