Hansberry v. Lee
E317642
United States Supreme Court case
case involving racially restrictive covenants
civil procedure case
landmark case
Hansberry v. Lee is a landmark 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case involving racially restrictive housing covenants that helped inspire the themes of Lorraine Hansberry’s play "A Raisin in the Sun."
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hansberry v. Lee canonical | 2 |
| Hansberry et al. v. Lee et al. | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3011915 — 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: Hansberry v. Lee Context triple: [A Raisin in the Sun, follows, Hansberry v. Lee]
-
A.
Yick Wo v. Hopkins
Yick Wo v. Hopkins is an 1886 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racially discriminatory enforcement of a facially neutral law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
B.
Shelley v. Kraemer
Shelley v. Kraemer is a landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that held courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants, marking a major civil rights victory against residential segregation.
-
C.
Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham
Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court struck down a city ordinance that gave officials broad discretion to deny parade permits, reinforcing First Amendment protections for civil rights demonstrators.
-
D.
NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co.
NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. is a landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that held nonviolent civil rights boycotts and related advocacy are protected by the First Amendment.
-
E.
Katzenbach v. McClung
Katzenbach v. McClung is a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the federal government’s power to prohibit racial discrimination in local restaurants under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- 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: Hansberry v. Lee Target entity description: Hansberry v. Lee is a landmark 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case involving racially restrictive housing covenants that helped inspire the themes of Lorraine Hansberry’s play "A Raisin in the Sun."
-
A.
Yick Wo v. Hopkins
Yick Wo v. Hopkins is an 1886 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racially discriminatory enforcement of a facially neutral law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
B.
Shelley v. Kraemer
Shelley v. Kraemer is a landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that held courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants, marking a major civil rights victory against residential segregation.
-
C.
Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham
Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court struck down a city ordinance that gave officials broad discretion to deny parade permits, reinforcing First Amendment protections for civil rights demonstrators.
-
D.
NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co.
NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. is a landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that held nonviolent civil rights boycotts and related advocacy are protected by the First Amendment.
-
E.
Katzenbach v. McClung
Katzenbach v. McClung is a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the federal government’s power to prohibit racial discrimination in local restaurants under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
case involving racially restrictive covenants ⓘ civil procedure case ⓘ landmark case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil procedure
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ property law ⓘ |
| background |
A prior state court judgment had upheld a racially restrictive covenant in the same neighborhood.
ⓘ
Plaintiffs sought to enforce a covenant restricting property ownership by African Americans. ⓘ |
| caseType | civil case ⓘ |
| citation | 311 U.S. 32 ⓘ |
| concerns |
enforcement of restrictive covenants
ⓘ
racially restrictive housing covenants ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause
ⓘ
linked to:
Due Process Clause
|
| decisionDate | 1940-11-12 ⓘ |
| decisionYear | 1940 ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Hansberry et al. v. Lee et al.
ⓘ
linked to:
Hansberry v. Lee
|
| hasCountry |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| hasCourt | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| hasLanguage | English ⓘ |
| holding |
A person cannot be bound by a prior judgment in a class action if their interests were not adequately represented.
ⓘ
Due process is violated when parties are bound by a judgment in litigation in which they were not adequately represented. ⓘ |
| influenced |
development of modern class action doctrine
ⓘ
subsequent civil rights litigation strategy ⓘ |
| inspired | themes in the play "A Raisin in the Sun" ⓘ |
| involvesParty |
Anna M. Lee
ⓘ
Carl Hansberry ⓘ
linked to:
Carl Hansberry Jr.
property owners in Chicago, Illinois ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
adequate representation in class actions
ⓘ
due process ⓘ res judicata ⓘ |
| location |
Chicago, Illinois
ⓘ
linked to:
Chicago
|
| majorityOpinionBy |
Harlan F. Stone
ⓘ
linked to:
Justice Harlan F. Stone
|
| precededBy | state court litigation upholding a restrictive covenant ⓘ |
| precedentFor |
limits on nonparty preclusion
ⓘ
requirements for representative litigation ⓘ |
| principleEstablished |
Class action judgments bind only those whose interests were adequately represented.
ⓘ
Due process limits the binding effect of prior judgments on nonparties. ⓘ |
| relatedPerson | Lorraine Hansberry ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
African American civil rights
ⓘ
racial segregation in housing ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
"A Raisin in the Sun"
ⓘ
linked to:
A Raisin in the Sun
|
| result | Judgment against Hansberry reversed ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
binding effect of prior judgments
ⓘ
enforceability of racially restrictive covenants ⓘ |
| timePeriod |
Jim Crow era
ⓘ
linked to:
Jim Crow laws
|
| vote | unanimous decision ⓘ |
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: Hansberry v. Lee Description of subject: Hansberry v. Lee is a landmark 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case involving racially restrictive housing covenants that helped inspire the themes of Lorraine Hansberry’s play "A Raisin in the Sun."
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Hansberry v. Lee