United States v. Washington Post Co.
E176886
United States v. Washington Post Co. is a landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that, alongside New York Times Co. v. United States, upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers against prior restraint by the government.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Washington Post Pentagon Papers case | 1 |
| United States v. Washington Post Co. canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1567643 — 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. Washington Post Co. Context triple: [New York Times Co. v. United States, relatedCase, United States v. Washington Post Co.]
-
A.
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States is a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers, sharply limiting the government’s power to impose prior restraint on the media.
-
B.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the “actual malice” standard, greatly expanding First Amendment protections for the press in defamation cases involving public officials.
-
C.
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the government's authority to regulate indecent material on public airwaves, stemming from a radio broadcast of George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" monologue.
-
D.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
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E.
Schenck v. United States
Schenck v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the “clear and present danger” test, allowing the government to restrict speech during wartime.
- 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. Washington Post Co. Target entity description: United States v. Washington Post Co. is a landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that, alongside New York Times Co. v. United States, upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers against prior restraint by the government.
-
A.
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States is a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers, sharply limiting the government’s power to impose prior restraint on the media.
-
B.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the “actual malice” standard, greatly expanding First Amendment protections for the press in defamation cases involving public officials.
-
C.
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the government's authority to regulate indecent material on public airwaves, stemming from a radio broadcast of George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" monologue.
-
D.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
-
E.
Schenck v. United States
Schenck v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the “clear and present danger” test, allowing the government to restrict speech during wartime.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Pentagon Papers case
ⓘ
U.S. Supreme Court case ⓘ landmark First Amendment case ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
United States v. Washington Post Co.
ⓘ
surface form:
The Washington Post Pentagon Papers case
|
| areaOfLaw |
First Amendment law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ media law ⓘ national security law ⓘ |
| citation |
29 L. Ed. 2d 862
ⓘ
403 U.S. 943 ⓘ 91 S. Ct. 2270 ⓘ |
| citedBy | later First Amendment and press freedom cases ⓘ |
| consolidatedWith | New York Times Co. v. United States ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
First Amendment
|
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| courtType | federal court ⓘ |
| decisionDate |
1971
ⓘ
June 30, 1971 ⓘ |
| decisionType | per curiam order ⓘ |
| defendant |
Washington Post
ⓘ
surface form:
The Washington Post
The Washington Post Company ⓘ |
| docketNumber | No. 1885 ⓘ |
| governmentActionChallenged | attempted injunction to stop publication of Pentagon Papers excerpts ⓘ |
| holding |
Application for stay of injunction against The Washington Post was denied
ⓘ
The government failed to meet the heavy burden required to justify a prior restraint on publication ⓘ |
| impact |
affirmed the press’s role in publishing information of public concern
ⓘ
strengthened protections against prior restraint of the press ⓘ |
| involves |
Pentagon Papers
ⓘ
top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
freedom of the press ⓘ national security and classified information ⓘ prior restraint ⓘ |
| originatedFrom | United States District Court for the District of Columbia ⓘ |
| partOf | Pentagon Papers litigation ⓘ |
| plaintiff |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| proceduralPosture | application by the United States for a stay of an injunction against publication ⓘ |
| relatedCase | New York Times Co. v. United States ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
executive branch claims of national security
ⓘ
freedom of information about government conduct in war ⓘ |
| result |
defeat for the United States government
ⓘ
victory for The Washington Post ⓘ |
| standardApplied | heavy presumption against the constitutional validity of prior restraints ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
government attempt to enjoin newspaper publication
ⓘ
publication of classified documents about the Vietnam War ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Vietnam War era ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1971 ⓘ |
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. Washington Post Co. Description of subject: United States v. Washington Post Co. is a landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that, alongside New York Times Co. v. United States, upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers against prior restraint by the government.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Washington Post Pentagon Papers case