United States v. Eichman
E165264
United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| United States v. Eichman canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1440193 — 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: United States v. Eichman Context triple: [opinion in Texas v. Johnson, precedentFor, United States v. Eichman]
-
A.
United States v. Guest
United States v. Guest is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the federal government can prosecute private conspiracies to interfere with constitutional rights, particularly the right to travel, under certain circumstances.
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B.
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
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C.
United States v. Comstock
United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
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D.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
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E.
Katz v. United States
Katz v. United States is a landmark 1967 Supreme Court case that redefined Fourth Amendment protections by establishing that the amendment safeguards people’s reasonable expectations of privacy, not just physical places.
- 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: United States v. Eichman Target entity description: United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
-
A.
United States v. Guest
United States v. Guest is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the federal government can prosecute private conspiracies to interfere with constitutional rights, particularly the right to travel, under certain circumstances.
-
B.
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
-
C.
United States v. Comstock
United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
-
D.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
-
E.
Katz v. United States
Katz v. United States is a landmark 1967 Supreme Court case that redefined Fourth Amendment protections by establishing that the amendment safeguards people’s reasonable expectations of privacy, not just physical places.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark First Amendment case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
freedom of speech ⓘ |
| caseCategory |
U.S. Supreme Court cases on freedom of speech
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtTime | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| citation |
110 L. Ed. 2d 287
ⓘ
110 S. Ct. 2404 ⓘ 496 U.S. 310 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ
surface form:
Free Speech Clause
|
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| decisionDate | 1990-06-11 ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
John Paul Stevens ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 89-1433 ⓘ |
| followsFrom |
opinion in Texas v. Johnson
ⓘ
surface form:
Texas v. Johnson
|
| fullCaseName | United States v. Eichman self-link ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| held |
Flag Protection Act of 1989 is unconstitutional
ⓘ
federal prohibition on flag desecration violates the First Amendment ⓘ government may not prohibit expression simply because it is offensive or disagreeable ⓘ |
| holdingAppliesTo | nonverbal expression involving the American flag ⓘ |
| lawStruckDown | Flag Protection Act of 1989 ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
The Right of Free Speech
ⓘ
surface form:
First Amendment free speech
content-based regulation of speech ⓘ flag desecration ⓘ |
| locationOfCourt | Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
Antonin Scalia ⓘ Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ Thurgood Marshall ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
William J. Brennan Jr.
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| parties |
Shawn Eichman
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| precedentFor |
limits on government regulation of symbolic speech
ⓘ
protection of offensive political expression ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
opinion in Texas v. Johnson
ⓘ
surface form:
Texas v. Johnson
|
| result | convictions under the Flag Protection Act were reversed ⓘ |
| typeOfSpeech |
expressive conduct
ⓘ
symbolic speech ⓘ |
| vote | 5-4 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1990 ⓘ |
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: United States v. Eichman Description of subject: United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.