Cohens v. Virginia
E80859
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.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cohens v. Virginia canonical | 6 |
| Philip J. Cohen and Mendes J. Cohen v. The Commonwealth of Virginia | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T635140 — 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: Cohens v. Virginia Context triple: [John Marshall, notableWork, Cohens v. Virginia]
-
A.
Paul v. Virginia
Paul v. Virginia is an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held corporations are not “citizens” under the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, allowing states to regulate foreign insurance companies.
-
B.
Morgan v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia was a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws mandating racial segregation on interstate buses, laying important groundwork for later civil rights actions.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Boynton v. Virginia
Boynton v. Virginia was a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended federal prohibitions against racial discrimination in interstate bus terminals, helping lay the legal groundwork for the Freedom Rides.
-
E.
Worcester v. Georgia
Worcester v. Georgia was an 1832 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court held that states had no authority to impose laws on Native American tribal lands, affirming tribal sovereignty in the face of federal Indian Removal policies.
- 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: Cohens v. Virginia Target entity description: 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.
-
A.
Paul v. Virginia
Paul v. Virginia is an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held corporations are not “citizens” under the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, allowing states to regulate foreign insurance companies.
-
B.
Morgan v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia was a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws mandating racial segregation on interstate buses, laying important groundwork for later civil rights actions.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Boynton v. Virginia
Boynton v. Virginia was a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended federal prohibitions against racial discrimination in interstate bus terminals, helping lay the legal groundwork for the Freedom Rides.
-
E.
Worcester v. Georgia
Worcester v. Georgia was an 1832 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court held that states had no authority to impose laws on Native American tribal lands, affirming tribal sovereignty in the face of federal Indian Removal policies.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark Supreme Court case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
criminal procedure ⓘ federal courts ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtTime | John Marshall ⓘ |
| citation | 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) 264 ⓘ |
| clarified | scope of Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction under Article III ⓘ |
| consideredLandmarkFor |
development of American federalism
ⓘ
expansion of Supreme Court appellate power over states ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Article III of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Supremacy Clause ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| courtTerm | 1821 term ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1821-03-03 ⓘ |
| followedDoctrineOf | judicial review established in Marbury v. Madison ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Cohens v. Virginia
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Philip J. Cohen and Mendes J. Cohen v. The Commonwealth of Virginia
|
| hasJurisdiction | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| holding |
Congress may authorize Supreme Court review of state court decisions in criminal as well as civil cases involving federal questions
ⓘ
State courts are not the final arbiters of federal law when the U.S. Supreme Court has jurisdiction ⓘ The U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction to review state criminal judgments that involve federal law or the U.S. Constitution ⓘ |
| involved |
conflict between a federal lottery statute and Virginia state law
ⓘ
lottery ticket sales in the District of Columbia ⓘ |
| jurisdictionBasis | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over state court decisions
ⓘ
conflict between state law and federal law ⓘ federal judicial review of state criminal proceedings ⓘ interpretation of Article III of the U.S. Constitution ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | John Marshall ⓘ |
| petitioner |
Mendes J. Cohen
ⓘ
Philip J. Cohen ⓘ |
| precededBy | Martin v. Hunter's Lessee ⓘ |
| reinforcedPrinciple |
Supreme Court as final arbiter of federal law
ⓘ
federal law supremacy over conflicting state law ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Supremacy Clause
ⓘ
surface form:
Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution
federalism in the United States ⓘ judicial review ⓘ |
| respondent |
Virginia
ⓘ
surface form:
Commonwealth of Virginia
|
| resultedIn | affirmation of Virginia’s conviction of the Cohens brothers ⓘ |
| stateCourtFromWhichAppealed |
Judicial System of Virginia
ⓘ
surface form:
Virginia state court
|
| strengthened |
authority of the U.S. Supreme Court over state courts
ⓘ
federal judicial power ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1821 ⓘ |
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: Cohens v. Virginia Description of subject: 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.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Philip J. Cohen and Mendes J. Cohen v. The Commonwealth of Virginia