Coppage v. Kansas
E934444
Coppage v. Kansas is a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law banning “yellow-dog” contracts, reflecting the Lochner-era emphasis on freedom of contract over labor protections.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Coppage v. Kansas canonical | 3 |
| Coppage v. State of Kansas | 1 |
| Opinion in Coppage v. Kansas | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11576363 — 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: Coppage v. Kansas Context triple: [United States Supreme Court cases of the White Court, hasNotableCase, Coppage v. Kansas]
-
A.
Kentucky v. Dennison
Kentucky v. Dennison was an 1861 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited federal power by holding that federal courts could not compel state governors to carry out interstate extradition.
-
B.
Scopes v. State
Scopes v. State was the 1927 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which tested the legality of teaching evolution in public schools and highlighted the clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
-
C.
McPherson v. Blacker
McPherson v. Blacker is an 1892 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a state’s authority to determine how its presidential electors are chosen, affirming broad state control over the Electoral College selection process.
-
D.
Cummings v. Missouri
Cummings v. Missouri was an 1867 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down post–Civil War loyalty oath requirements as unconstitutional bills of attainder and ex post facto laws.
-
E.
De Jonge v. Oregon
De Jonge v. Oregon is a 1937 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the right to peaceful assembly is a fundamental liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thus applies to 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: Coppage v. Kansas Target entity description: Coppage v. Kansas is a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law banning “yellow-dog” contracts, reflecting the Lochner-era emphasis on freedom of contract over labor protections.
-
A.
Kentucky v. Dennison
Kentucky v. Dennison was an 1861 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited federal power by holding that federal courts could not compel state governors to carry out interstate extradition.
-
B.
Scopes v. State
Scopes v. State was the 1927 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which tested the legality of teaching evolution in public schools and highlighted the clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
-
C.
McPherson v. Blacker
McPherson v. Blacker is an 1892 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a state’s authority to determine how its presidential electors are chosen, affirming broad state control over the Electoral College selection process.
-
D.
Cummings v. Missouri
Cummings v. Missouri was an 1867 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down post–Civil War loyalty oath requirements as unconstitutional bills of attainder and ex post facto laws.
-
E.
De Jonge v. Oregon
De Jonge v. Oregon is a 1937 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the right to peaceful assembly is a fundamental liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thus applies to the states.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
constitutional law case ⓘ labor law case ⓘ |
| appliesConstitutionalProvision |
Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
ⓘ
linked to:
Due Process Clause
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ
linked to:
Fourteenth Amendment
|
| concernsSubject |
employer-employee relations
ⓘ
labor unions ⓘ yellow-dog contracts ⓘ |
| hasCitation | 236 U.S. 1 ⓘ |
| hasCourt | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| hasDecisionDate | 1915-01-25 ⓘ |
| hasDecisionType | majority opinion ⓘ |
| hasDissentAuthor |
Justice Charles Evans Hughes
ⓘ
linked to:
Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ⓘ
linked to:
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
|
| hasDissentJoiner |
Justice John Marshall Harlan II
ⓘ
linked to:
John M. Harlan II
Justice Louis Brandeis ⓘ
linked to:
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
|
| hasDoctrinalTheme |
freedom of contract
ⓘ
substantive due process ⓘ |
| hasEra |
Lochner era
ⓘ
linked to:
Lochner v. New York
|
| hasFullCaseName |
Coppage v. State of Kansas
ⓘ
linked to:
Coppage v. Kansas
|
| hasHistoricalSignificance |
illustrates Supreme Court hostility to labor regulations during the Lochner era
ⓘ
limited state power to protect workers from anti-union employment contracts ⓘ |
| hasHolding |
a Kansas statute prohibiting yellow-dog contracts violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
ⓘ
employers and employees have a constitutional liberty of contract that the state may not unduly restrict ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction | United States federal law ⓘ |
| hasLaterTreatment | substantially undermined by later New Deal–era decisions expanding regulatory power over labor relations ⓘ |
| hasLegalIssue |
constitutionality of state ban on yellow-dog contracts
ⓘ
scope of freedom of contract under the Due Process Clause ⓘ |
| hasMajorityAuthor | Justice Mahlon Pitney ⓘ |
| hasMajorityJoiner |
Chief Justice Edward Douglass White
ⓘ
linked to:
Edward Douglass White
Justice Horace Harmon Lurton ⓘ Justice James Clark McReynolds ⓘ
linked to:
Justice James C. McReynolds
Justice Joseph McKenna ⓘ Justice Joseph Rucker Lamar ⓘ Justice Willis Van Devanter ⓘ |
| hasOutcome | Kansas statute banning yellow-dog contracts struck down ⓘ |
| hasPetitioner | T. B. Coppage ⓘ |
| hasPrecedentialStatus | binding precedent (at time of decision) ⓘ |
| hasRespondent |
State of Kansas
ⓘ
linked to:
Kansas
|
| hasStateInvolved | Kansas ⓘ |
| hasYearDecided | 1915 ⓘ |
| isRelatedCase |
Adair v. United States
ⓘ
Lochner v. New York ⓘ NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. ⓘ West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish ⓘ |
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: Coppage v. Kansas Description of subject: Coppage v. Kansas is a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law banning “yellow-dog” contracts, reflecting the Lochner-era emphasis on freedom of contract over labor protections.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Coppage v. Kansas
linked to: Coppage v. Kansas