U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton
E439603
U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that held states cannot impose term limits on members of Congress beyond those specified in the U.S. Constitution.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4428542 — 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: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton Context triple: [Article I, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, citedInCase, U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton]
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A.
Buckley v. Valeo
Buckley v. Valeo is a landmark 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reshaped campaign finance law by equating certain limits on political spending with restrictions on free speech under the First Amendment.
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B.
Lynch v. Donnelly
Lynch v. Donnelly is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the inclusion of a nativity scene in a city’s Christmas display and helped shape modern Establishment Clause analysis of government endorsement of religion.
-
C.
Van Orden v. Perry
Van Orden v. Perry is a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument on Texas State Capitol grounds against an Establishment Clause challenge.
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D.
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee is a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed the scope of federal protections against voting discrimination, particularly under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
-
E.
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that curtailed Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be applied to the states.
- 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: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton Target entity description: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that held states cannot impose term limits on members of Congress beyond those specified in the U.S. Constitution.
-
A.
Buckley v. Valeo
Buckley v. Valeo is a landmark 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reshaped campaign finance law by equating certain limits on political spending with restrictions on free speech under the First Amendment.
-
B.
Lynch v. Donnelly
Lynch v. Donnelly is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the inclusion of a nativity scene in a city’s Christmas display and helped shape modern Establishment Clause analysis of government endorsement of religion.
-
C.
Van Orden v. Perry
Van Orden v. Perry is a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument on Texas State Capitol grounds against an Establishment Clause challenge.
-
D.
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee is a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed the scope of federal protections against voting discrimination, particularly under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
-
E.
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that curtailed Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be applied to the states.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
constitutional law case ⓘ elections law case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
federalism
ⓘ
separation of powers ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1994-11-29 ⓘ |
| citation |
115 S. Ct. 1842
ⓘ
131 L. Ed. 2d 881 ⓘ 514 U.S. 779 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Article I, Section 3 of the United States Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1995-05-22 ⓘ |
| defendant | Ray Thornton NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| dissentingOpinionBy |
Anthony M. Kennedy
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Antonin Scalia NERFINISHED ⓘ Clarence Thomas NERFINISHED ⓘ William H. Rehnquist NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 93-1456 ⓘ |
| effect |
Invalidated state constitutional provisions imposing term limits on members of Congress
ⓘ
Limited states’ ability to regulate ballot access for federal legislative candidates ⓘ |
| holding |
States cannot impose term limits on members of Congress beyond those in the U.S. Constitution
ⓘ
States may not impose qualifications for prospective members of Congress stricter than those specified in the U.S. Constitution ⓘ |
| issue |
Validity of state-imposed term limits for federal legislators
ⓘ
Whether a state can add qualifications for members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
David H. Souter
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Harry Blackmun NERFINISHED ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor NERFINISHED ⓘ Thurgood Marshall NERFINISHED ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| languageOfDecision | English ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
Qualifications for members of Congress are fixed in the U.S. Constitution and may not be supplemented by the states
ⓘ
The Tenth Amendment does not reserve to the states a power to add qualifications for federal office that the Constitution does not delegate NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | John Paul Stevens NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | Arkansas Supreme Court NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originatingState | Arkansas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| plaintiff | U.S. Term Limits, Inc. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| precedentFor | later cases addressing state regulation of federal elections ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
ballot access restrictions
ⓘ
congressional term limits ⓘ state powers under the Tenth Amendment ⓘ |
| relatedMeasure | Arkansas Term Limitation Amendment (Amendment 73) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| result | Arkansas Amendment 73’s congressional term limits provisions were held unconstitutional ⓘ |
| vote | 5-4 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1995 ⓘ |
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: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton Description of subject: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that held states cannot impose term limits on members of Congress beyond those specified in the U.S. Constitution.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Article I, Section 4 of the United States Constitution
→
citedInCase
→
U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton
ⓘ