Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989)
E403306
Section 1983 case
U.S. Supreme Court decision
United States Supreme Court case
federal civil rights case
Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that neither a State nor its officials acting in their official capacities are “persons” subject to damages liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989) canonical | 1 |
Statements (36)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Section 1983 case
ⓘ
U.S. Supreme Court decision ⓘ United States Supreme Court case ⓘ federal civil rights case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ federal courts and jurisdiction ⓘ sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| citation | 491 U.S. 58 ⓘ |
| citationStyle | United States Reports ⓘ |
| clarifies | that § 1983 does not abrogate state sovereign immunity for damages suits ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1989 ⓘ |
| effect |
distinguishes between official-capacity and individual-capacity suits under § 1983
ⓘ
limits damages actions under § 1983 against States ⓘ limits damages actions under § 1983 against state officials in their official capacities ⓘ |
| firstPage | 58 ⓘ |
| holding |
a State is not a “person” subject to damages liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983
ⓘ
state officials acting in their official capacities are not “persons” subject to damages liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ state officials sued in their official capacities for damages are not subject to suit under § 1983 ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| languageOfDecision | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
whether a State is a “person” under 42 U.S.C. § 1983
ⓘ
whether state officials sued in their official capacities are “persons” under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for damages ⓘ |
| petitioner | Will ⓘ |
| relatedDoctrine |
Eleventh Amendment immunity
ⓘ
Section 1983 “person” requirement ⓘ official-capacity suits ⓘ state sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| reporter |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
U.S.
|
| reporterVolume | 491 ⓘ |
| respondent |
Michigan State Police
ⓘ
surface form:
Michigan Department of State Police
|
| statuteInterpreted | 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ |
| term | October Term 1988 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1989 ⓘ |
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: Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989) Description of subject: Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that neither a State nor its officials acting in their official capacities are “persons” subject to damages liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
42 U.S.C. § 1983
→
interpretedBy
→
Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989)
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