Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp.
E796586
Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the estate of nuclear worker and whistleblower Karen Silkwood successfully sued her employer for plutonium contamination, affirming the availability of state tort remedies alongside federal nuclear regulation.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9394813 — 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: Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. Context triple: [Karen Silkwood, legalCase, Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp.]
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A.
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.
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B.
SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Co.
SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. is a landmark U.S. securities law case that broadly defined insider trading liability and the disclosure obligations of publicly traded companies under federal law.
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C.
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.
-
D.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is a landmark 2007 U.S. Supreme Court employment discrimination case on pay inequity and the statute of limitations for filing wage discrimination claims under Title VII.
-
E.
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.
- 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: Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. Target entity description: Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the estate of nuclear worker and whistleblower Karen Silkwood successfully sued her employer for plutonium contamination, affirming the availability of state tort remedies alongside federal nuclear regulation.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Co.
SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. is a landmark U.S. securities law case that broadly defined insider trading liability and the disclosure obligations of publicly traded companies under federal law.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is a landmark 2007 U.S. Supreme Court employment discrimination case on pay inequity and the statute of limitations for filing wage discrimination claims under Title VII.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
nuclear regulation case ⓘ tort law case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
federal preemption doctrine
ⓘ
products liability ⓘ workplace safety ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1983-10-04 ⓘ |
| citation | Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U.S. 238 (1984) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1984-01-11 ⓘ |
| defendant | Kerr-McGee Corporation NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
Justice John Paul Stevens
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Justice Warren E. Burger NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice William H. Rehnquist NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 81-2159 ⓘ |
| fullName | Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holding |
federal nuclear safety regulation does not preempt state-law tort remedies
ⓘ
state-law punitive damages are not preempted by the Atomic Energy Act ⓘ |
| impact | strengthened role of state tort law in nuclear and hazardous industries ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Justice Harry A. Blackmun
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice Sandra Day O'Connor NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice Thurgood Marshall NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice William J. Brennan Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| keyPrinciple |
Congress did not intend to displace traditional state tort law in nuclear safety context
ⓘ
federal regulation can coexist with state tort remedies unless clearly preempted ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
availability of punitive damages under state law for nuclear incidents
ⓘ
whether federal nuclear safety regulation preempts state tort law ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Justice Byron White NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originatingCircuit | United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| plaintiff | Estate of Karen Silkwood NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| rearguedDate | 1983-11-30 ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, Inc.
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedOrganization | Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedPerson | Karen Silkwood NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedTopic | nuclear whistleblowing in the United States ⓘ |
| resultBelow | judgment for Silkwood's estate with compensatory and punitive damages ⓘ |
| shortName | Silkwood NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted |
Atomic Energy Act of 1954
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Price-Anderson Act NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
federal preemption
ⓘ
nuclear safety ⓘ punitive damages ⓘ state tort remedies ⓘ |
| SupremeCourtDisposition | affirmed in part and reversed in part ⓘ |
| volume | 464 U.S. 238 ⓘ |
| vote | 5-4 ⓘ |
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: Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. Description of subject: Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the estate of nuclear worker and whistleblower Karen Silkwood successfully sued her employer for plutonium contamination, affirming the availability of state tort remedies alongside federal nuclear regulation.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.