Clinton v. Jones
E15619
Clinton v. Jones is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a sitting president is not immune from civil litigation for unofficial acts committed before taking office.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Clinton v. Jones canonical | 5 |
| Clinton v. Jones decision | 1 |
| Paula Jones lawsuit | 1 |
| William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, petitioner v. Paula Corbin Jones | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T132243 — 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: Clinton v. Jones Context triple: [United States v. Nixon, citedBy, Clinton v. Jones]
-
A.
Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Gore is the landmark 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively resolved the disputed presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore by halting the Florida recount.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder is a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions required federal preclearance for changes to their voting laws.
-
D.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
E.
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.
- 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: Clinton v. Jones Target entity description: Clinton v. Jones is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a sitting president is not immune from civil litigation for unofficial acts committed before taking office.
-
A.
Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Gore is the landmark 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively resolved the disputed presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore by halting the Florida recount.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder is a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions required federal preclearance for changes to their voting laws.
-
D.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
legal case ⓘ |
| allegedConductTimePeriod | before Bill Clinton became President of the United States ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil procedure
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ separation of powers ⓘ |
| citation | 520 U.S. 681 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionDiscussed |
Article II of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
separation of powers doctrine ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1997-05-27 ⓘ |
| decisionType | unanimous decision ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 95-1853 ⓘ |
| effect | Allowed Paula Jones's civil lawsuit against President Clinton to proceed while he was in office. ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Clinton v. Jones
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, petitioner v. Paula Corbin Jones
|
| holding |
A sitting President of the United States has no immunity from civil litigation in federal court for unofficial acts alleged to have occurred before taking office.
ⓘ
The Constitution does not require federal courts to stay all private civil lawsuits against the President until he leaves office. ⓘ |
| impact | Clarified limits of presidential immunity from civil litigation. ⓘ |
| issue | Scope of presidential immunity from civil suits for unofficial conduct ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| justiceInMajority |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
Antonin Scalia ⓘ Clarence Thomas ⓘ David H. Souter ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ
surface form:
Sandra Day O'Connor
Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
Presidential immunity is limited to official acts within the outer perimeter of presidential duties.
ⓘ
Separation of powers does not require federal courts to stay private civil actions against a sitting President for unofficial conduct. ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | John Paul Stevens ⓘ |
| oralArgumentDate | 1997-01-13 ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas ⓘ |
| petitioner |
Bill Clinton
ⓘ
surface form:
William Jefferson Clinton
|
| presidentInvolved | Bill Clinton ⓘ |
| priorCaseReferenced | Nixon v. Fitzgerald ⓘ |
| proceduralHistory | District court denied motion to dismiss but ordered stay; Eighth Circuit reversed stay; Supreme Court affirmed Eighth Circuit. ⓘ |
| respondent | Paula Corbin Jones ⓘ |
| result | Judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed. ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
civil liability of a sitting President
ⓘ
presidential immunity ⓘ |
| vote | 9-0 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1997 ⓘ |
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: Clinton v. Jones Description of subject: Clinton v. Jones is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a sitting president is not immune from civil litigation for unofficial acts committed before taking office.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, petitioner v. Paula Corbin Jones
this entity surface form:
Paula Jones lawsuit
this entity surface form:
Clinton v. Jones decision