District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co.
E884683
District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. is a 1953 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the enforceability of an 1872 D.C. civil rights law prohibiting racial discrimination in restaurants.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10763008 — 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: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. Context triple: [District Clause of the U.S. Constitution, citedInCase, District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co.]
-
A.
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.
-
B.
International Shoe Co. v. Washington
International Shoe Co. v. Washington is a landmark 1945 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the modern "minimum contacts" standard for determining when a state may exercise personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant.
-
C.
Crowell v. Benson
Crowell v. Benson is a 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the constitutional limits of administrative agencies’ fact-finding powers and the scope of judicial review over administrative adjudications.
-
D.
United States v. E. C. Knight Co.
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. was an 1895 U.S. Supreme Court decision that sharply limited the federal government’s power to regulate monopolies under the Commerce Clause, weakening early enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
-
E.
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.
- 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: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. Target entity description: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. is a 1953 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the enforceability of an 1872 D.C. civil rights law prohibiting racial discrimination in restaurants.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
International Shoe Co. v. Washington
International Shoe Co. v. Washington is a landmark 1945 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the modern "minimum contacts" standard for determining when a state may exercise personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant.
-
C.
Crowell v. Benson
Crowell v. Benson is a 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the constitutional limits of administrative agencies’ fact-finding powers and the scope of judicial review over administrative adjudications.
-
D.
United States v. E. C. Knight Co.
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. was an 1895 U.S. Supreme Court decision that sharply limited the federal government’s power to regulate monopolies under the Commerce Clause, weakening early enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (38)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
civil rights case ⓘ public accommodations discrimination case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
anti-discrimination law
ⓘ
civil rights law ⓘ constitutional law ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1953 ⓘ |
| effect |
prohibited racial discrimination in restaurants in the District of Columbia
ⓘ
revived enforcement of long-dormant D.C. civil rights statutes ⓘ |
| enforcedPrinciple |
non-discrimination in restaurant service
ⓘ
racial equality in access to public accommodations ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | early Supreme Court enforcement of local civil rights statutes against racial discrimination in public accommodations ⓘ |
| holding |
An 1872 District of Columbia civil rights law prohibiting racial discrimination in restaurants was valid and enforceable
ⓘ
Restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse service to customers on the basis of race ⓘ The District of Columbia civil rights statutes had not been repealed by implication ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
District of Columbia
ⓘ
United States federal jurisdiction ⓘ |
| languageOfProceedings | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
enforceability of civil rights statutes
ⓘ
public accommodations ⓘ racial discrimination in restaurants ⓘ |
| location | District of Columbia ⓘ |
| party |
District of Columbia
ⓘ
John R. Thompson Co. ⓘ |
| precedentFor | later civil rights enforcement in the District of Columbia ⓘ |
| relatedTo | public accommodations cases preceding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ⓘ |
| result | restaurants in Washington, D.C. were required to serve customers without racial discrimination ⓘ |
| statuteInQuestion |
1872 District of Columbia civil rights law
ⓘ
D.C. law prohibiting racial discrimination in restaurants ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
civil rights in the District of Columbia
ⓘ
public accommodations law ⓘ racial segregation ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfEvents |
Jim Crow era
ⓘ
linked to:
Jim Crow laws
|
| typeOfLawInvolved |
civil rights law
ⓘ
local statute of the District of Columbia ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1953 ⓘ |
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: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. Description of subject: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. is a 1953 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the enforceability of an 1872 D.C. civil rights law prohibiting racial discrimination in restaurants.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
District Clause of the U.S. Constitution
→
citedInCase
→
District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co.
ⓘ