Whitley v. Albers
E914624
Whitley v. Albers is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision that set the standard for evaluating prison officials’ use of force under the Eighth Amendment, focusing on whether force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Whitley v. Albers canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11257259 — 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: Whitley v. Albers Context triple: [Hudson v. McMillian, relatedCase, Whitley v. Albers]
-
A.
Whitney v. California
Whitney v. California was a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a conviction under a state criminal syndicalism law and became historically significant for Justice Brandeis’s influential concurrence on free speech before later being overruled.
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B.
Blakely v. Washington
Blakely v. Washington is a landmark 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision that applied the Apprendi rule to state sentencing guidelines, holding that any fact increasing a defendant’s sentence beyond the statutory maximum must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
-
C.
Downes v. Bidwell
Downes v. Bidwell is a 1901 U.S. Supreme Court case that helped establish the "Insular Cases" doctrine, holding that full constitutional rights do not automatically extend to all territories under American control.
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D.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
E.
Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting
Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld an Arizona law allowing the state to revoke business licenses of employers who knowingly hire unauthorized immigrants, ruling that it was not preempted by federal immigration law.
- 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: Whitley v. Albers Target entity description: Whitley v. Albers is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision that set the standard for evaluating prison officials’ use of force under the Eighth Amendment, focusing on whether force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm.
-
A.
Whitney v. California
Whitney v. California was a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld a conviction under a state criminal syndicalism law and became historically significant for Justice Brandeis’s influential concurrence on free speech before later being overruled.
-
B.
Blakely v. Washington
Blakely v. Washington is a landmark 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision that applied the Apprendi rule to state sentencing guidelines, holding that any fact increasing a defendant’s sentence beyond the statutory maximum must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
-
C.
Downes v. Bidwell
Downes v. Bidwell is a 1901 U.S. Supreme Court case that helped establish the "Insular Cases" doctrine, holding that full constitutional rights do not automatically extend to all territories under American control.
-
D.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
E.
Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting
Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld an Arizona law allowing the state to revoke business licenses of employers who knowingly hire unauthorized immigrants, ruling that it was not preempted by federal immigration law.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Eighth Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ prisoners' rights case ⓘ |
| appliesTo | claims by convicted prisoners under the Eighth Amendment ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ prison law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | November 12, 1985 ⓘ |
| causeOfAction | 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim ⓘ |
| citation | Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312 (1986) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| clarified | that the Eighth Amendment inquiry focuses on the officials' state of mind in using force ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| context | prison riot or disturbance situation ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decidedDate | March 4, 1986 ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1986 ⓘ |
| distinguishedFrom | Fourth Amendment excessive force standard NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 84-1077 ⓘ |
| factPattern | prison disturbance and shooting of an inmate by a prison official ⓘ |
| followedBy | Hudson v. McMillian NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holding | The Eighth Amendment is violated by prison officials' use of force only when force is applied maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influenced | later Eighth Amendment excessive force jurisprudence ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Justice Byron R. White NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice Harry A. Blackmun NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice John Paul Stevens NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice Thurgood Marshall NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice William H. Rehnquist NERFINISHED ⓘ Justice William J. Brennan Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
cruel and unusual punishment standard
ⓘ
use of force by prison officials ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Justice Sandra Day O'Connor NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| page | 312 ⓘ |
| party |
Albers
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Marion Whitley NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| precedentFor | evaluation of prison officials' use of force under the Eighth Amendment ⓘ |
| rejected | negligence as a sufficient basis for an Eighth Amendment excessive force claim in the prison context ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| standardAppliesWhen |
officials act in good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline
ⓘ
officials act maliciously and sadistically to cause harm ⓘ |
| standardClarified | good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline versus malicious and sadistic intent to cause harm ⓘ |
| standardEstablished | malicious and sadistic standard for prison use-of-force claims under the Eighth Amendment ⓘ |
| volume | 475 ⓘ |
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: Whitley v. Albers Description of subject: Whitley v. Albers is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision that set the standard for evaluating prison officials’ use of force under the Eighth Amendment, focusing on whether force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.