Contract Clause
E53938
The Contract Clause is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that restricts states from passing laws that impair the obligation of existing contracts.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Contract Clause canonical | 9 |
| Obligation of Contracts Clause | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T429493 — 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: Contract Clause Context triple: [Article I of the United States Constitution, containsClause, Contract Clause]
-
A.
Enforcement Clause
The Enforcement Clause is the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that grants Congress the power to pass legislation implementing and protecting the amendment’s guarantees of due process and equal protection.
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B.
Clause 40
Clause 40 is a famous provision of the Magna Carta that promises royal justice will not be sold, denied, or delayed to any person.
-
C.
Clause 39
Clause 39 is a key provision of the Magna Carta that guarantees the right to due process by prohibiting arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, or dispossession except by lawful judgment or the law of the land.
-
D.
Tri-Party Agreement
The Tri-Party Agreement is a legally binding cleanup and compliance pact among the U.S. Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of Washington that sets milestones and responsibilities for remediating the Hanford nuclear site.
-
E.
Guarantee Clause
The Guarantee Clause is a provision of the U.S. Constitution that obligates the federal government to ensure every state maintains a republican form of government and protection against invasion and domestic violence.
- 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: Contract Clause Target entity description: The Contract Clause is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that restricts states from passing laws that impair the obligation of existing contracts.
-
A.
Enforcement Clause
The Enforcement Clause is the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that grants Congress the power to pass legislation implementing and protecting the amendment’s guarantees of due process and equal protection.
-
B.
Clause 40
Clause 40 is a famous provision of the Magna Carta that promises royal justice will not be sold, denied, or delayed to any person.
-
C.
Clause 39
Clause 39 is a key provision of the Magna Carta that guarantees the right to due process by prohibiting arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, or dispossession except by lawful judgment or the law of the land.
-
D.
Tri-Party Agreement
The Tri-Party Agreement is a legally binding cleanup and compliance pact among the U.S. Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of Washington that sets milestones and responsibilities for remediating the Hanford nuclear site.
-
E.
Guarantee Clause
The Guarantee Clause is a provision of the U.S. Constitution that obligates the federal government to ensure every state maintains a republican form of government and protection against invasion and domestic violence.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
clause of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
constitutional provision ⓘ |
| affects | state legislative power ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Contract Clause
ⓘ
surface form:
Obligation of Contracts Clause
|
| appliesTo |
U.S. states
ⓘ
private contracts ⓘ public contracts ⓘ |
| bindingOn | all U.S. states ⓘ |
| category | U.S. constitutional clauses ⓘ |
| citation |
Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
U.S. Const. art. I, § 10, cl. 1
|
| concerns | retroactive alteration of contractual obligations ⓘ |
| constitutionalLevel | federal constitutional law ⓘ |
| doesNotProtect | mere future expectations of contracts not yet formed ⓘ |
| enforcedBy | federal courts ⓘ |
| foundInText |
Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution
|
| hasKeyCase |
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus
ⓘ
Dartmouth College v. Woodward ⓘ Energy Reserves Group, Inc. v. Kansas Power & Light Co. ⓘ Fletcher v. Peck ⓘ Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell ⓘ United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey ⓘ |
| historicalContext | adopted in response to state debtor-relief laws under the Articles of Confederation ⓘ |
| interpretedBy | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| languageSource | United States Constitution ⓘ |
| legalDomain |
constitutional law
ⓘ
contract law ⓘ state-federal relations ⓘ |
| limits | state governments ⓘ |
| modernInterpretation | allows some state impairment of contracts if reasonable and necessary to serve an important public purpose ⓘ |
| notAppliesTo | federal government ⓘ |
| originalFocus | protection of private contract rights against state interference ⓘ |
| originPeriod |
American Revolutionary era
ⓘ
surface form:
Founding Era of the United States
|
| partOf |
Article I of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| prohibits |
state laws impairing the obligation of contracts
ⓘ
state laws that impair existing contractual obligations ⓘ state laws that interfere with private contracts retroactively ⓘ |
| protects |
contractual expectations existing at the time of the contract
ⓘ
obligation of contracts ⓘ |
| purpose |
to protect the stability and enforceability of contracts
ⓘ
to restrict state interference with private agreements ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Due Process Clause
ⓘ
Ex Post Facto Clause ⓘ Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ
surface form:
Takings Clause
|
| scope | state legislation and state governmental action ⓘ |
| testInModernLaw | substantial impairment and reasonableness/necessity analysis ⓘ |
| text | "No State shall ... pass any ... Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts" ⓘ |
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: Contract Clause Description of subject: The Contract Clause is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that restricts states from passing laws that impair the obligation of existing contracts.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Obligation of Contracts Clause
Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell
→
constitutionalProvisionInterpreted
→
Contract Clause
ⓘ