Powell v. McCormack
E557778
Powell v. McCormack is a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited Congress’s power to exclude a duly elected member, holding that it could not refuse to seat Adam Clayton Powell Jr. when he met all constitutional qualifications.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Powell v. McCormack canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5959371 — 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: Powell v. McCormack Context triple: [Adam Clayton Powell Jr., legalCase, Powell v. McCormack]
-
A.
Wesberry v. Sanders
Wesberry v. Sanders is a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle that congressional districts must be drawn so that each person's vote is as equal in weight as practicable, laying groundwork for the "one person, one vote" standard.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Katzenbach v. Morgan
Katzenbach v. Morgan is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment to prohibit certain state voting restrictions, reinforcing federal authority to protect voting rights.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
Nixon v. Condon
Nixon v. Condon is a 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’s delegation of authority to the Democratic Party to exclude Black voters from primary elections as unconstitutional state action under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- 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: Powell v. McCormack Target entity description: Powell v. McCormack is a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited Congress’s power to exclude a duly elected member, holding that it could not refuse to seat Adam Clayton Powell Jr. when he met all constitutional qualifications.
-
A.
Wesberry v. Sanders
Wesberry v. Sanders is a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle that congressional districts must be drawn so that each person's vote is as equal in weight as practicable, laying groundwork for the "one person, one vote" standard.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Katzenbach v. Morgan
Katzenbach v. Morgan is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment to prohibit certain state voting restrictions, reinforcing federal authority to protect voting rights.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
Nixon v. Condon
Nixon v. Condon is a 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’s delegation of authority to the Democratic Party to exclude Black voters from primary elections as unconstitutional state action under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
election law
ⓘ
federal courts ⓘ legislative powers ⓘ |
| arguedDate |
1968-11-18
ⓘ
1968-11-19 ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtDecision | Earl Warren ⓘ |
| citation | 395 U.S. 486 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Abe Fortas
ⓘ
Byron White ⓘ
linked to:
Byron R. White
Hugo Black ⓘ
linked to:
Hugo L. Black
John Marshall Harlan II ⓘ
linked to:
John M. Harlan II
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ William O. Douglas ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Article I, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution ⓘ Article I, Section 5, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution ⓘ Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1969-06-16 ⓘ |
| defendant | John W. McCormack ⓘ |
| defendantOffice | Speaker of the United States House of Representatives ⓘ |
| dissentBy | Potter Stewart ⓘ |
| distinctionDrawn | difference between exclusion and expulsion of a member of Congress ⓘ |
| effect | limited Congress’s power to refuse to seat duly elected members who meet constitutional qualifications ⓘ |
| holding |
Congress may not exclude a duly elected member who meets the Constitution’s standing qualifications for membership in the House of Representatives
ⓘ
The House of Representatives may judge only the qualifications expressly set forth in the Constitution for its members ⓘ The House of Representatives may not add to the constitutional qualifications for membership by excluding a member-elect ⓘ |
| issue |
justiciability of disputes over congressional membership
ⓘ
scope of congressional power to exclude a member-elect ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| legalDoctrine |
case or controversy requirement
ⓘ
political question doctrine ⓘ separation of powers ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Earl Warren ⓘ |
| originatingBody | United States House of Representatives ⓘ |
| page | 486 ⓘ |
| plaintiff | Adam Clayton Powell Jr. ⓘ |
| rearguedDate |
1969-03-10
ⓘ
1969-03-11 ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
expulsion of members of Congress
ⓘ
qualifications for membership in the United States House of Representatives ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| subjectOf | United States constitutional law ⓘ |
| term |
Warren Court
ⓘ
linked to:
Warren Court era
|
| volume | 395 ⓘ |
| vote | 7–1 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1969 ⓘ |
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: Powell v. McCormack Description of subject: Powell v. McCormack is a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited Congress’s power to exclude a duly elected member, holding that it could not refuse to seat Adam Clayton Powell Jr. when he met all constitutional qualifications.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.