Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
E31056
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.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson canonical | 6 |
| Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T243140 — 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: Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson Context triple: [Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, landmarkCase, Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson]
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A.
Sherbert v. Verner
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.
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B.
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.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
Zschernig v. Miller
Zschernig v. Miller is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state involvement in foreign affairs by striking down an Oregon law affecting inheritance rights of foreign nationals as an intrusion into the federal government's exclusive foreign relations power.
- 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: Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson Target entity description: 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.
-
A.
Sherbert v. Verner
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.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
Zschernig v. Miller
Zschernig v. Miller is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state involvement in foreign affairs by striking down an Oregon law affecting inheritance rights of foreign nationals as an intrusion into the federal government's exclusive foreign relations power.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
employment discrimination case ⓘ sexual harassment case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights law
ⓘ
labor and employment law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1986-03-25 ⓘ |
| citation | 477 U.S. 57 ⓘ |
| clarified |
that the correct inquiry is whether conduct was unwelcome, not whether the employee participated
ⓘ
that voluntariness is not a defense if sexual advances are unwelcome ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1986-06-19 ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 84-1979 ⓘ |
| established | standards for employer liability for acts of supervisors under Title VII ⓘ |
| fullName |
Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson
ⓘ
linked to:
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
|
| holding |
Sexual harassment that creates a hostile or abusive work environment is actionable under Title VII even without economic or tangible job detriment
ⓘ
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits hostile work environment sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination ⓘ
linked to:
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
|
| issue |
What standard governs employer liability for supervisor sexual harassment under Title VII
ⓘ
Whether a claim of hostile environment sexual harassment is cognizable under Title VII ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ Sandra Day O'Connor ⓘ
linked to:
Sandra Day O’Connor
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ Warren E. Burger ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
ⓘ
employer liability for supervisor harassment ⓘ hostile work environment ⓘ workplace sexual harassment ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| page | 57 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Meritor Savings Bank, FSB ⓘ |
| precedentFor |
Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth
ⓘ
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton ⓘ Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. ⓘ |
| recognized | hostile work environment theory of sexual harassment under Title VII ⓘ |
| recognizedAs |
first Supreme Court case to hold that workplace sexual harassment is sex discrimination under Title VII
ⓘ
landmark decision on workplace sexual harassment ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
hostile work environment sexual harassment
ⓘ
quid pro quo sexual harassment ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent | Mechelle Vinson ⓘ |
| volume | 477 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1986 ⓘ |
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: Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson Description of subject: 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.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.