De Canas v. Bica
E26372
De Canas v. Bica is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a California law regulating the employment of unauthorized immigrants, holding that not all state regulations touching on immigration are preempted by federal law.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| De Canas v. Bica canonical | 6 |
| De Canas v. Bica, 424 U.S. 351 (1976) | 2 |
| De Canas et al. v. Bica et al. | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T204644 — 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: De Canas v. Bica Context triple: [Arizona v. United States, relatedCase, De Canas v. Bica]
-
A.
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.
-
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.
Saenz v. Roe
Saenz v. Roe is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down California’s welfare residency requirements and reaffirmed the constitutional right to travel under the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
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.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
- 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: De Canas v. Bica Target entity description: De Canas v. Bica is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a California law regulating the employment of unauthorized immigrants, holding that not all state regulations touching on immigration are preempted by federal law.
-
A.
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.
-
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.
Saenz v. Roe
Saenz v. Roe is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down California’s welfare residency requirements and reaffirmed the constitutional right to travel under the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
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.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (39)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
court decision ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
immigration law ⓘ labor and employment law ⓘ |
| authorOfMajorityOpinion | William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| citation |
424 U.S. 351
ⓘ
47 L. Ed. 2d 43 ⓘ 96 S. Ct. 933 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInvolved |
Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Article VI of the United States Constitution
Supremacy Clause ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1976-06-17 ⓘ |
| fullName |
De Canas v. Bica
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
De Canas et al. v. Bica et al.
|
| holding |
California state law
ⓘ
surface form:
California Labor Code § 2805 was not, on its face, preempted by federal immigration law at the time
Not every state enactment which in any way deals with aliens is a regulation of immigration and thus per se preempted by federal power to regulate immigration ⓘ States possess broad authority under their police powers to regulate the employment relationship to protect workers within the state ⓘ |
| impact | provided framework for evaluating state laws affecting unauthorized workers prior to IRCA ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| legalIssue |
federal preemption
ⓘ
state regulation of employment of unauthorized immigrants ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
A state law is a regulation of immigration only if it determines who should or should not be admitted into the country and the conditions under which a legal entrant may remain
ⓘ
States may regulate employment relationships involving unauthorized workers so long as they do not intrude into the field of immigration regulation reserved to the federal government ⓘ |
| opinionBy | William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| parties |
Bica
ⓘ
De Canas ⓘ |
| precedentFor | analysis of when state laws affecting immigrants are preempted ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Arizona v. United States
ⓘ
Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting ⓘ |
| result | California statute was upheld against facial preemption challenge ⓘ |
| stateInvolved |
California, United States
ⓘ
surface form:
California
|
| stateLawAtIssue | California Labor Code § 2805 ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | employment of nonresident aliens not lawfully admitted for permanent residence ⓘ |
| subsequentDevelopment | later federal legislation, including the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, altered the federal-state balance in regulating employment of unauthorized immigrants ⓘ |
| term | 1975 Term ⓘ |
| topic |
employment of unauthorized immigrants
ⓘ
preemption of state law by federal immigration law ⓘ |
| vote | unanimous decision ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1976 ⓘ |
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: De Canas v. Bica Description of subject: De Canas v. Bica is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a California law regulating the employment of unauthorized immigrants, holding that not all state regulations touching on immigration are preempted by federal law.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
De Canas et al. v. Bica et al.
this entity surface form:
De Canas v. Bica, 424 U.S. 351 (1976)
this entity surface form:
De Canas v. Bica, 424 U.S. 351 (1976)