United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co.
E615013
United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly broadened the federal government’s authority to regulate non-navigable waterways under the Commerce Clause.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6737227 — 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: United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. Context triple: [United States Supreme Court cases of the Hughes Court, includesCase, United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co.]
-
A.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited courts’ ability to impose additional procedural requirements on federal agencies beyond those mandated by the Administrative Procedure Act and relevant statutes.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
Carter v. Carter Coal Co. was a 1936 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down federal regulation of coal production as an unconstitutional overreach of Congress’s Commerce Clause powers.
-
D.
Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co.
Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co. was a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that briefly allowed Congress to subject states to private suits for damages under its Article I powers before being later overruled.
-
E.
Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission is a landmark 1971 federal court decision that gave strong judicial force to the National Environmental Policy Act by requiring agencies to rigorously consider environmental impacts in their decision-making.
- 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: United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. Target entity description: United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly broadened the federal government’s authority to regulate non-navigable waterways under the Commerce Clause.
-
A.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited courts’ ability to impose additional procedural requirements on federal agencies beyond those mandated by the Administrative Procedure Act and relevant statutes.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
Carter v. Carter Coal Co. was a 1936 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down federal regulation of coal production as an unconstitutional overreach of Congress’s Commerce Clause powers.
-
D.
Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co.
Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co. was a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that briefly allowed Congress to subject states to private suits for damages under its Article I powers before being later overruled.
-
E.
Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission is a landmark 1971 federal court decision that gave strong judicial force to the National Environmental Policy Act by requiring agencies to rigorously consider environmental impacts in their decision-making.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark decision ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
environmental and water law ⓘ federal jurisdiction ⓘ |
| citation |
311 U.S. 377
ⓘ
61 S. Ct. 291 ⓘ 85 L. Ed. 243 ⓘ |
| constitutionalBasis | Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| courtTerm | October Term 1940 ⓘ |
| courtType | court of last resort ⓘ |
| decidedBy | Supreme Court of the United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1940-12-16 ⓘ |
| decisionType | majority opinion ⓘ |
| fullName | United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Company NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| geographicScope |
Appalachian region
ⓘ
New River NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holding |
Congress may regulate waterways that are not presently navigable if they are susceptible of being made navigable in the future for interstate commerce
ⓘ
federal authority over waterways under the Commerce Clause extends to non-navigable segments when part of a larger navigable water system ⓘ federal government may consider potential improvements in determining navigability ⓘ federal power over navigation includes power to control obstructions and developments affecting navigable capacity ⓘ |
| impact |
broadened definition of navigable waters for federal regulatory purposes
ⓘ
expanded federal authority over water resources and power projects ⓘ influenced later interpretations of federal water and environmental regulation ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal ⓘ |
| languageOfCourt | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
Commerce Clause power
ⓘ
definition of navigable waters ⓘ federal regulatory power over non-navigable streams ⓘ scope of federal authority over waterways ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Justice Hugo L. Black NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| pageInUnitedStatesReports | 377 ⓘ |
| party |
Appalachian Electric Power Company
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| precedentFor | cases expanding federal power over waterways ⓘ |
| relatedDoctrine |
federal navigation servitude
ⓘ
navigable waters doctrine ⓘ |
| relatedStatute | Federal Power Act NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| result | judgment for the United States in asserting regulatory authority ⓘ |
| shortDescription | 1940 U.S. Supreme Court decision broadening federal authority to regulate non-navigable waterways under the Commerce Clause ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
construction of a dam on the New River
ⓘ
federal regulation of hydroelectric power development ⓘ |
| volumeInUnitedStatesReports | 311 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1940 ⓘ |
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: United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. Description of subject: United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co. is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly broadened the federal government’s authority to regulate non-navigable waterways under the Commerce Clause.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
United States Supreme Court cases of the Hughes Court
→
includesCase
→
United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co.
ⓘ