Hans v. Louisiana
E114953
Hans v. Louisiana is an 1890 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established that a citizen cannot sue their own state in federal court without the state's consent, significantly shaping Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity doctrine.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hans v. Louisiana canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T969467 — 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: Hans v. Louisiana Context triple: [Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, keyCase, Hans v. Louisiana]
-
A.
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.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Washington v. Davis
Washington v. Davis is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that held laws or policies with a racially disproportionate impact do not violate the Equal Protection Clause absent proof of discriminatory intent.
-
D.
Branch v. Texas
Branch v. Texas is a U.S. Supreme Court case addressing the constitutionality and application of the death penalty in the wake of the landmark Furman v. Georgia decision.
-
E.
Gebhart v. Belton
Gebhart v. Belton was a landmark Delaware school segregation case whose rulings in favor of Black students became one of the four consolidated cases decided in Brown v. Board of Education, contributing to the Supreme Court’s rejection of “separate but equal” in public education.
- 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: Hans v. Louisiana Target entity description: Hans v. Louisiana is an 1890 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established that a citizen cannot sue their own state in federal court without the state's consent, significantly shaping Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity doctrine.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Washington v. Davis
Washington v. Davis is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that held laws or policies with a racially disproportionate impact do not violate the Equal Protection Clause absent proof of discriminatory intent.
-
D.
Branch v. Texas
Branch v. Texas is a U.S. Supreme Court case addressing the constitutionality and application of the death penalty in the wake of the landmark Furman v. Georgia decision.
-
E.
Gebhart v. Belton
Gebhart v. Belton was a landmark Delaware school segregation case whose rulings in favor of Black students became one of the four consolidated cases decided in Brown v. Board of Education, contributing to the Supreme Court’s rejection of “separate but equal” in public education.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Eleventh Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ sovereign immunity case ⓘ |
| arisesFrom | dispute over Louisiana state bonds ⓘ |
| clarifies | that the Eleventh Amendment is not limited to suits by citizens of another state or foreign citizens ⓘ |
| establishesDoctrine | federal courts lack jurisdiction over suits against a state by its own citizens without consent ⓘ |
| hasAmendmentInterpreted |
Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Eleventh Amendment
|
| hasAreaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
federal courts ⓘ state sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| hasCitation | 134 U.S. 1 ⓘ |
| hasConstitutionalProvisionDiscussed |
Article III of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| hasCountry |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| hasCourt | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| hasDecisionDate | 1890 ⓘ |
| hasDecisionType | unanimous decision ⓘ |
| hasJurisdictionBasis | federal-question jurisdiction under Article III ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
consent of the state to be sued
ⓘ
implied constitutional structure of sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| hasLegalEffect |
barred federal-question suits against a state by its own citizens absent consent
ⓘ
became a foundational precedent for Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence ⓘ expanded the doctrine of state sovereign immunity in federal courts ⓘ |
| hasOpinionAuthor | Justice Joseph P. Bradley ⓘ |
| hasOutcome | judgment for the State of Louisiana ⓘ |
| hasPetitioner | Bernard Hans ⓘ |
| hasProceduralPosture | appeal from a federal circuit court ⓘ |
| hasReporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| hasRespondent |
Louisiana
ⓘ
surface form:
State of Louisiana
|
| hasSubjectMatter | state bond obligations and contract claims against a state ⓘ |
| hasTimePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| hasVolume | 134 ⓘ |
| hasYearDecided | 1890 ⓘ |
| holds |
a citizen cannot sue his or her own state in federal court without the state’s consent
ⓘ
the Eleventh Amendment embodies a broader principle of state sovereign immunity than its text alone suggests ⓘ |
| interprets | Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| involvesIssue |
federal jurisdiction over suits against states
ⓘ
scope of the Eleventh Amendment ⓘ state sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| isCitedBy |
Alden v. Maine
ⓘ
Ex parte Young ⓘ Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer ⓘ Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida ⓘ |
| standsFor | states retain sovereign immunity from unconsented suits in federal court by their own citizens ⓘ |
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: Hans v. Louisiana Description of subject: Hans v. Louisiana is an 1890 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established that a citizen cannot sue their own state in federal court without the state's consent, significantly shaping Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity doctrine.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Chisholm v. Georgia (Supreme Court decision)