Zschernig v. Miller
E14280
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.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Zschernig et al. v. Miller, Administrator | 1 |
| Zschernig v. Miller canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T125866 — 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: Zschernig v. Miller Context triple: [Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, relatedCase, Zschernig v. Miller]
-
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.
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.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
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: Zschernig v. Miller Target entity description: 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.
-
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.
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.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
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 (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark foreign affairs case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
federal courts ⓘ international law ⓘ |
| citation |
19 L. Ed. 2d 683
ⓘ
389 U.S. 429 ⓘ 88 S. Ct. 664 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Earl Warren
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice Earl Warren
Abe Fortas ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Abe Fortas
Byron R. White ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Byron White
Hugo L. Black ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Hugo L. Black
John M. Harlan II ⓘ
surface form:
Justice John Marshall Harlan II
Potter Stewart ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Potter Stewart
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Thurgood Marshall
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| constitutionalProvision |
Article I of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Article I of the U.S. Constitution
Article II of the United States Constitution ⓘ
surface form:
Article II of the U.S. Constitution
Supremacy Clause ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1968-01-15 ⓘ |
| effect |
established that state laws cannot have more than incidental or indirect effect on foreign relations
ⓘ
restricted state involvement in foreign affairs ⓘ |
| factPattern | Oregon law conditioned inheritance by nonresident aliens on reciprocity and proof of rights in their home country ⓘ |
| fullName |
Zschernig v. Miller
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Zschernig et al. v. Miller, Administrator
|
| holding |
Oregon probate statute was unconstitutional as an intrusion into the federal government’s exclusive foreign relations power
ⓘ
state law was invalid under the Foreign Affairs power even without a conflicting federal statute or treaty ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| keyDoctrine |
dormant foreign affairs preemption
ⓘ
limits on state regulation with more than incidental effect on foreign relations ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
constitutionality of state law affecting foreign nationals’ inheritance
ⓘ
scope of federal government’s exclusive power over foreign relations ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
conflict of laws
ⓘ
federal preemption ⓘ foreign affairs power ⓘ inheritance rights ⓘ |
| lowerCourt |
Oregon Supreme Court
ⓘ
surface form:
Supreme Court of Oregon
|
| lowerCourtDisposition | judgment of the Supreme Court of Oregon reversed ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
William O. Douglas
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William O. Douglas
|
| parties | foreign heirs who were residents of East Germany ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
American Insurance Assn. v. Garamendi
ⓘ
surface form:
American Insurance Association v. Garamendi
Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council ⓘ |
| stateLawChallenged | Oregon ⓘ |
| statuteInvolved |
Oregon Revised Statutes
ⓘ
surface form:
Oregon Revised Statutes § 111.070 (1963) (formerly § 111.070, Oregon Laws)
|
| subjectMatter | escheat of property to the state when foreign heirs could not meet statutory conditions ⓘ |
| subsequentCitation | frequently cited in cases limiting state action in foreign affairs ⓘ |
| term | 1967 Term ⓘ |
| vote | 9-0 ⓘ |
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: Zschernig v. Miller Description of subject: 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.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Zschernig et al. v. Miller, Administrator