Alden v. Maine
E114955
Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Alden v. Maine canonical | 3 |
| Alden et al. v. Maine | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T969469 — 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: Alden v. Maine Context triple: [Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, keyCase, Alden v. Maine]
-
A.
Cantwell v. Connecticut
Cantwell v. Connecticut is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case that first applied the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to the states, striking down a state law that improperly restricted religious proselytizing.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Lee v. Weisman
Lee v. Weisman is a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held clergy-led prayer at public school graduation ceremonies unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
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.
- 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: Alden v. Maine Target entity description: Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
-
A.
Cantwell v. Connecticut
Cantwell v. Connecticut is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case that first applied the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to the states, striking down a state law that improperly restricted religious proselytizing.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Lee v. Weisman
Lee v. Weisman is a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held clergy-led prayer at public school graduation ceremonies unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
sovereign immunity case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
federal courts ⓘ labor law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1999-03-31 ⓘ |
| citation | 527 U.S. 706 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Article I of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decidedDate | 1999-06-23 ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1999-06-23 ⓘ |
| dissentingOpinionBy |
David H. Souter
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice David H. Souter
|
| docketNumber | 98-436 ⓘ |
| effect | expanded scope of state sovereign immunity in U.S. constitutional law ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Alden v. Maine
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Alden et al. v. Maine
|
| holding |
Congress lacks Article I power to subject nonconsenting states to private suits for damages in state courts
ⓘ
States are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law without their consent ⓘ |
| joinedByInDissent |
John Paul Stevens
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice John Paul Stevens
Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Stephen G. Breyer
|
| joinedByInMajority |
William H. Rehnquist
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
Antonin Scalia ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Antonin Scalia
Clarence Thomas ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Clarence Thomas
Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
|
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
Eleventh Amendment principles
ⓘ
state sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
|
| originatingCourt | United States District Court for the District of Maine ⓘ |
| page | 706 ⓘ |
| parties |
Maine
ⓘ
surface form:
State of Maine
probation officers employed by the State of Maine ⓘ |
| precedentFor | limits on Congress's ability to abrogate state sovereign immunity using Article I powers ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer
ⓘ
Hans v. Louisiana ⓘ Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents ⓘ Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida ⓘ |
| relatedStatute | Fair Labor Standards Act ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| result | judgment for the State of Maine ⓘ |
| stateInvolved | Maine ⓘ |
| subsequentProceeding | Maine state court action after federal suit dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds ⓘ |
| topic |
federalism
ⓘ
state immunity from private suits ⓘ |
| volume | 527 ⓘ |
| year | 1999 ⓘ |
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: Alden v. Maine Description of subject: Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Alden et al. v. Maine