Buck v. Bell opinion
E103577
The Buck v. Bell opinion is a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., that notoriously upheld the constitutionality of compulsory sterilization laws and became a symbol of the excesses of the American eugenics movement.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Buck v. Bell | 2 |
| Buck v. Bell opinion canonical | 1 |
| Virginia compulsory sterilization statute | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T881420 — 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: Buck v. Bell opinion Context triple: [Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., notableWork, Buck v. Bell opinion]
-
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.
Doe v. Bolton
Doe v. Bolton is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that, alongside Roe v. Wade, expanded and defined the scope of abortion rights by striking down restrictive state regulations.
-
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.
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly strengthened free speech protections by establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for when advocacy of violence can be punished under the First Amendment.
-
E.
Cohens v. Virginia
Cohens v. Virginia is an 1821 U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed the Court’s authority to review state criminal proceedings involving federal law, strengthening federal judicial power over the states.
- 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: Buck v. Bell opinion Target entity description: The Buck v. Bell opinion is a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., that notoriously upheld the constitutionality of compulsory sterilization laws and became a symbol of the excesses of the American eugenics movement.
-
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.
Doe v. Bolton
Doe v. Bolton is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that, alongside Roe v. Wade, expanded and defined the scope of abortion rights by striking down restrictive state regulations.
-
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.
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly strengthened free speech protections by establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for when advocacy of violence can be punished under the First Amendment.
-
E.
Cohens v. Virginia
Cohens v. Virginia is an 1821 U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed the Court’s authority to review state criminal proceedings involving federal law, strengthening federal judicial power over the states.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court opinion
ⓘ
judicial decision ⓘ landmark case in American constitutional law ⓘ |
| appliedTo | persons deemed "feeble-minded" ⓘ |
| aroseFrom |
Buck v. Bell opinion
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Virginia compulsory sterilization statute
|
| citedBy | Skinner v. Oklahoma ⓘ |
| concernsInstitution | Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded ⓘ |
| concernsPerson | Carrie Buck ⓘ |
| hasAuthor | Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ⓘ |
| hasCaseName |
Buck v. Bell opinion
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Buck v. Bell
|
| hasCitation | 274 U.S. 200 ⓘ |
| hasConstitutionalProvisionConsidered |
Fourteenth Amendment
ⓘ
surface form:
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
|
| hasCountry |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| hasCourt | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| hasDecisionDate | May 2, 1927 ⓘ |
| hasDissentingJustice | Pierce Butler ⓘ |
| hasDocketNumber | No. 292 ⓘ |
| hasEra | Lochner era ⓘ |
| hasFamousQuote | "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." ⓘ |
| hasHistoricalReputation |
one of the most criticized decisions in Supreme Court history
ⓘ
symbol of the excesses of American eugenics ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction |
Virginia
ⓘ
surface form:
Commonwealth of Virginia
|
| hasLanguage | English ⓘ |
| hasLegalField |
civil liberties
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ health law ⓘ |
| hasLegalIssue | constitutionality of compulsory sterilization ⓘ |
| hasMajorityOpinionBy | Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ⓘ |
| hasPage | 200 ⓘ |
| hasPetitioner | Carrie Buck ⓘ |
| hasProceduralPosture | appeal from the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia ⓘ |
| hasReporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| hasRespondent | John Hendren Bell ⓘ |
| hasRespondentRole | Superintendent of the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded ⓘ |
| hasRightImplicated |
due process of law
ⓘ
equal protection of the laws ⓘ |
| hasStatus | never formally overruled ⓘ |
| hasSubjectMatter |
disability rights
ⓘ
forced sterilization ⓘ reproductive rights ⓘ |
| hasSubsequentTreatment | effectively discredited by later substantive due process jurisprudence ⓘ |
| hasVolume | 274 ⓘ |
| hasVote | 8–1 ⓘ |
| held |
Virginia sterilization law was constitutional
ⓘ
compulsory sterilization of the unfit did not violate the U.S. Constitution ⓘ |
| influenced | state sterilization programs in the United States ⓘ |
| relatesTo |
eugenics movement in the United States
ⓘ
police power of the states ⓘ substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ |
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: Buck v. Bell opinion Description of subject: The Buck v. Bell opinion is a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., that notoriously upheld the constitutionality of compulsory sterilization laws and became a symbol of the excesses of the American eugenics movement.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Buck v. Bell
this entity surface form:
Virginia compulsory sterilization statute
this entity surface form:
Buck v. Bell