Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus
E285913
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state interference with private contracts by striking down a Minnesota pension law as violating the Constitution’s Contract Clause.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus canonical | 2 |
| Allied Structural Steel Company v. Spannaus | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2652823 — 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: Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus Context triple: [Contract Clause, hasKeyCase, Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus]
-
A.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. is a landmark 1937 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld federal power to regulate labor relations, marking a major expansion of Congress’s authority over interstate commerce.
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B.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB
BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed when an employer’s unsuccessful but reasonably based lawsuit against a union can be treated as an unfair labor practice under federal labor law.
-
E.
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a city’s local-hiring ordinance could be challenged under the Privileges and Immunities Clause for discriminating against out-of-state workers.
- 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: Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus Target entity description: Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state interference with private contracts by striking down a Minnesota pension law as violating the Constitution’s Contract Clause.
-
A.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. is a landmark 1937 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld federal power to regulate labor relations, marking a major expansion of Congress’s authority over interstate commerce.
-
B.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB
BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed when an employer’s unsuccessful but reasonably based lawsuit against a union can be treated as an unfair labor practice under federal labor law.
-
E.
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a city’s local-hiring ordinance could be challenged under the Privileges and Immunities Clause for discriminating against out-of-state workers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Contract Clause case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ legal case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
contracts ⓘ pension regulation ⓘ |
| citation | 438 U.S. 234 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionCited |
Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Article I Section 10 of the United States Constitution
|
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | Contract Clause ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1978-06-12 ⓘ |
| decisionType | majority decision ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
John Paul Stevens
ⓘ
William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Allied Structural Steel Company v. Spannaus
|
| holding | A Minnesota pension law imposing retroactive pension funding obligations on an employer violated the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| issue | Whether Minnesota could retroactively alter private pension obligations without violating the Contract Clause ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| languageOfProceeding | English ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple | States may not substantially impair private contractual obligations without a significant and legitimate public purpose and reasonable conditions ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ Potter Stewart ⓘ Thurgood Marshall ⓘ Warren E. Burger ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Potter Stewart ⓘ |
| page | 234 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Allied Structural Steel Company ⓘ |
| precedentFor | judicial limits on retroactive economic legislation affecting contracts ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent | Warren Spannaus ⓘ |
| respondentOffice | Attorney General of Minnesota ⓘ |
| result | state statute struck down as unconstitutional ⓘ |
| shortDescription | U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating a Minnesota pension law under the Contract Clause ⓘ |
| state | Minnesota ⓘ |
| stateLawChallenged | Minnesota Private Pension Benefits Protection Act ⓘ |
| subsequentCitation | often cited as a modern application of the Contract Clause ⓘ |
| topic | limits on state interference with private contracts ⓘ |
| volume | 438 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1978 ⓘ |
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: Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus Description of subject: Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited state interference with private contracts by striking down a Minnesota pension law as violating the Constitution’s Contract Clause.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus
→
fullCaseName
→
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Allied Structural Steel Company v. Spannaus