Romer v. Evans

E90996

LGBT rights case United States Supreme Court case landmark civil rights case

Romer v. Evans is a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment targeting gay, lesbian, and bisexual people as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

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All labels observed (4)

Label	Occurrences
Romer v. Evans canonical	6
Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996)	2
Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620	1
Romer, Governor of Colorado, et al. v. Evans et al.	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T752721 — 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: Romer v. Evans
Context triple: [Equal Protection Clause, basisFor, Romer v. Evans]

A. 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.
B. Argersinger v. Hamlin
Argersinger v. Hamlin is a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the right to counsel to defendants in misdemeanor cases that may result in imprisonment.
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. Grovey v. Townsend
Grovey v. Townsend was a 1935 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the Texas Democratic Party’s whites-only primary rule, later repudiated as unconstitutional racial discrimination in voting.
E. Milliken v. Bradley
Milliken v. Bradley is a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited the scope of school desegregation remedies by ruling that courts could not impose cross-district busing plans absent proof of interdistrict segregation.
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: Romer v. Evans
Target entity description: Romer v. Evans is a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment targeting gay, lesbian, and bisexual people as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

A. 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.
B. Argersinger v. Hamlin
Argersinger v. Hamlin is a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the right to counsel to defendants in misdemeanor cases that may result in imprisonment.
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. Grovey v. Townsend
Grovey v. Townsend was a 1935 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the Texas Democratic Party’s whites-only primary rule, later repudiated as unconstitutional racial discrimination in voting.
E. Milliken v. Bradley
Milliken v. Bradley is a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited the scope of school desegregation remedies by ruling that courts could not impose cross-district busing plans absent proof of interdistrict segregation.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (46)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	LGBT rights case ⓘ United States Supreme Court case ⓘ landmark civil rights case ⓘ
affectedGroup	bisexual people ⓘ gay people ⓘ lesbian people ⓘ
areaOfLaw	LGBT rights law ⓘ civil rights law ⓘ constitutional law ⓘ
arguedDate	1995-10-10 ⓘ
challengedProvision	Colorado Amendment 2 ⓘ
citation	517 U.S. 620 ⓘ
constitutionalProvisionInterpreted	Equal Protection Clause ⓘ Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ surface form: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
country	United States of America ⓘ surface form: United States
decidingCourt	Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ
decisionDate	1996-05-20 ⓘ
dissentingJustices	Antonin Scalia ⓘ Clarence Thomas ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ
dissentOpinionBy	Antonin Scalia ⓘ
docketNumber	94-1039 ⓘ
fullCaseName	Romer v. Evans self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Romer, Governor of Colorado, et al. v. Evans et al.
hasJurisdiction	United States of America ⓘ surface form: United States
holding	A state cannot single out homosexual and bisexual persons and deny them protection across the board ⓘ Colorado Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause ⓘ
languageOfOpinion	English ⓘ
legalIssue	Equal Protection Clause ⓘ surface form: Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
majorityJustices	Anthony M. Kennedy ⓘ David H. Souter ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ
majorityOpinionBy	Anthony M. Kennedy ⓘ
originatingState	Colorado ⓘ
precedentFor	LGBT equal protection jurisprudence in the United States ⓘ
reasoning	law based on animus toward a class of persons lacks a rational relationship to a legitimate state interest ⓘ
result	Colorado Amendment 2 was struck down as unconstitutional ⓘ
standardOfReviewDiscussed	rational basis review ⓘ
term	1995 term of the U.S. Supreme Court ⓘ
topic	anti-discrimination protections ⓘ sexual orientation discrimination ⓘ state constitutional amendments ⓘ
vote	6-3 ⓘ
yearDecided	1996 ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (10)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Equal Protection Clause → basisFor → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

Romer v. Evans → fullCaseName → Romer v. Evans self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Romer, Governor of Colorado, et al. v. Evans et al.

Colorado Amendment 2 → challengedIn → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

Colorado Amendment 2 → subjectOfCourtCase → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

Colorado Amendment 2 → overturnedByCourtDecision → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

Colorado Amendment 2 → describedBySource → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

this entity surface form: Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996)

Colorado Amendment 2 → hasLegalCitation → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

this entity surface form: Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620

Colorado Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause → centralHoldingOf → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

Colorado Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause → announcedInCase → Romer v. Evans ⓘ

Colorado Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause → sourceCaseCitation → Romer v. Evans ⓘ