Baker v. Nelson
E28840
Baker v. Nelson was a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that summarily dismissed a same-sex marriage claim, effectively allowing states to ban such marriages until it was later overturned by Obergefell v. Hodges.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Baker v. Nelson canonical | 9 |
| Baker et al. v. Nelson, Clerk of Hennepin County | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T226686 — 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: Baker v. Nelson Context triple: [Obergefell v. Hodges, overturnedPrecedent, Baker v. Nelson]
-
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.
De Canas v. Bica
De Canas v. Bica is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a California law regulating the employment of unauthorized immigrants, holding that not all state regulations touching on immigration are preempted by federal law.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
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: Baker v. Nelson Target entity description: Baker v. Nelson was a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that summarily dismissed a same-sex marriage claim, effectively allowing states to ban such marriages until it was later overturned by Obergefell v. Hodges.
-
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.
De Canas v. Bica
De Canas v. Bica is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a California law regulating the employment of unauthorized immigrants, holding that not all state regulations touching on immigration are preempted by federal law.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
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 (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
same-sex marriage case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
family law ⓘ |
| category |
United States LGBT rights case
ⓘ
United States constitutional case ⓘ United States marriage case ⓘ |
| citation | 409 U.S. 810 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInvolved |
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
linked to:
Fourteenth Amendment
|
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1972-10-10 ⓘ |
| decisionMethod | per curiam order ⓘ |
| disposition | appeal dismissed for want of a substantial federal question ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 71-1027 ⓘ |
| effect | allowed states to prohibit same-sex marriage for decades ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Baker et al. v. Nelson, Clerk of Hennepin County
ⓘ
linked to:
Baker v. Nelson
|
| hasJurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| holding | same-sex marriage claims did not present a substantial federal question under the U.S. Constitution ⓘ |
| impact | influenced litigation strategy in early same-sex marriage cases ⓘ |
| languageOfProceedings | English ⓘ |
| laterTreatment | limited and undermined by subsequent Supreme Court decisions ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
Due Process Clause
ⓘ
Equal Protection Clause ⓘ same-sex marriage ⓘ |
| legalSystem | common law ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | Minnesota Supreme Court ⓘ |
| originatingJurisdiction | Minnesota ⓘ |
| overruledBy | Obergefell v. Hodges ⓘ |
| party |
James Michael McConnell
ⓘ
Richard John Baker ⓘ |
| partyType | same-sex couple ⓘ |
| precedentialEffect | binding summary disposition on lower federal courts at the time ⓘ |
| precedentStatusBeforeObergefell | treated as controlling on same-sex marriage claims by many lower courts ⓘ |
| proceduralPosture | appeal from Minnesota Supreme Court ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Lawrence v. Texas
ⓘ
linked to:
Lawrence v. Texas (in part)
Obergefell v. Hodges ⓘ United States v. Windsor ⓘ |
| relationshipToCase | precedent considered in Obergefell v. Hodges ⓘ |
| resultForPlaintiffs | relief denied ⓘ |
| shortName | Baker v. Nelson ⓘ |
| stateLawChallenged | Minnesota marriage law restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
LGBT rights in the United States
ⓘ
civil rights ⓘ marriage licensing ⓘ |
| subsequentHistory | treated as no longer controlling after doctrinal developments culminating in Obergefell v. Hodges ⓘ |
| timePeriod | pre-Obergefell same-sex marriage jurisprudence ⓘ |
| typeOfDecision | summary dismissal ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1972 ⓘ |
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: Baker v. Nelson Description of subject: Baker v. Nelson was a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that summarily dismissed a same-sex marriage claim, effectively allowing states to ban such marriages until it was later overturned by Obergefell v. Hodges.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Baker v. Nelson