In re Debs Supreme Court case
E58074
In re Debs was an 1895 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the federal government’s authority to use injunctions and troops to end the Pullman Strike, significantly expanding federal power over labor disputes and interstate commerce.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| In re Debs Supreme Court case canonical | 2 |
| In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895) | 2 |
| Opinion in In re Debs | 1 |
| Use of federal injunctions in the Pullman Strike | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T463054 — 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: In re Debs Supreme Court case Context triple: [Pullman Strike, followedBy, In re Debs Supreme Court case]
-
A.
Debs v. United States
Debs v. United States was a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case in which socialist leader Eugene V. Debs’s conviction for antiwar speech was upheld, reinforcing broad limits on free speech during wartime.
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B.
Gitlow v. New York
Gitlow v. New York is a 1925 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked a major step in applying First Amendment free speech protections to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
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C.
Schenck v. United States
Schenck v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the “clear and present danger” test, allowing the government to restrict speech during wartime.
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D.
Lochner v. New York
Lochner v. New York is a landmark 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state labor regulation and became emblematic of the era in which the Court used substantive due process to protect economic liberty and limit government regulation of business.
-
E.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
- 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: In re Debs Supreme Court case Target entity description: In re Debs was an 1895 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the federal government’s authority to use injunctions and troops to end the Pullman Strike, significantly expanding federal power over labor disputes and interstate commerce.
-
A.
Debs v. United States
Debs v. United States was a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case in which socialist leader Eugene V. Debs’s conviction for antiwar speech was upheld, reinforcing broad limits on free speech during wartime.
-
B.
Gitlow v. New York
Gitlow v. New York is a 1925 U.S. Supreme Court case that marked a major step in applying First Amendment free speech protections to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
C.
Schenck v. United States
Schenck v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the “clear and present danger” test, allowing the government to restrict speech during wartime.
-
D.
Lochner v. New York
Lochner v. New York is a landmark 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state labor regulation and became emblematic of the era in which the Court used substantive due process to protect economic liberty and limit government regulation of business.
-
E.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
federal courts case ⓘ labor law case ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Debs v. United States
ⓘ
surface form:
Debs v. United States (informal name)
|
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
federal courts and jurisdiction ⓘ interstate commerce ⓘ labor law ⓘ |
| citationStyle |
In re Debs Supreme Court case
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895)
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1895-05-27 ⓘ |
| decisionType | unanimous decision ⓘ |
| effect |
expanded federal power over labor disputes affecting interstate commerce
ⓘ
limited autonomy of labor unions in nationwide strikes ⓘ strengthened use of labor injunctions against unions ⓘ |
| fullName |
In re Debs Supreme Court case
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895)
|
| historicalContext | Gilded Age labor conflicts ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | landmark case in legitimizing federal intervention in labor strikes ⓘ |
| holding |
The contempt convictions of Eugene V. Debs and others for violating a federal injunction were upheld.
ⓘ
The federal government may obtain injunctions to halt labor strikes that interfere with interstate commerce and the mails. ⓘ Federal government ⓘ
surface form:
The federal government may use troops to enforce federal court injunctions and ensure the operation of interstate commerce and the mails.
|
| involvedOrganization |
American Railway Union
ⓘ
Pullman Palace Car Company ⓘ United States Army ⓘ United States Department of Justice ⓘ |
| involvedPerson | Eugene V. Debs ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| legalIssue |
contempt of court for violating injunction
ⓘ
federal authority over interstate commerce ⓘ federal authority over the mails ⓘ federal power to issue labor injunctions ⓘ |
| location | Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
David J. Brewer
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice David J. Brewer
|
| page | 564 ⓘ |
| petitioner |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| precedentFor | later federal labor injunction cases ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
federal police power
ⓘ
interstate commerce clause ⓘ labor injunction ⓘ mail power of Congress ⓘ |
| relatedEvent | Pullman Strike ⓘ |
| respondent |
Eugene V. Debs
ⓘ
officers of the American Railway Union ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
federal injunctions in labor disputes
ⓘ
scope of federal police power ⓘ use of federal troops in domestic disturbances ⓘ |
| volume | 158 U.S. ⓘ |
| vote | 9-0 ⓘ |
| year | 1895 ⓘ |
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: In re Debs Supreme Court case Description of subject: In re Debs was an 1895 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the federal government’s authority to use injunctions and troops to end the Pullman Strike, significantly expanding federal power over labor disputes and interstate commerce.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
In re Debs
this entity surface form:
In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895)
In re Debs Supreme Court case
→
citationStyle
→
In re Debs Supreme Court case
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
subject surface form:
In re Debs
this entity surface form:
In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895)
subject surface form:
Richard Olney
this entity surface form:
Use of federal injunctions in the Pullman Strike
this entity surface form:
Opinion in In re Debs