Scales v. United States
E936062
Scales v. United States is a 1961 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of prosecuting active members of organizations advocating violent overthrow of the government under the Smith Act, while requiring proof of specific intent to further those illegal aims.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Scales v. United States canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11598394 — 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: Scales v. United States Context triple: [Alien Registration Act of 1940, subjectOf, Scales v. United States]
-
A.
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.
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B.
Screws v. United States
Screws v. United States is a 1945 U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowly interpreted federal civil rights protections in prosecuting state officials for the brutal killing of a Black man, shaping the “willful intent” standard under 18 U.S.C. § 242.
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C.
Yates v. United States
Yates v. United States is a 1957 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed the application of the Smith Act by distinguishing between the advocacy of abstract doctrine and the advocacy of concrete action to overthrow the government.
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D.
Gall v. United States
Gall v. United States is a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified federal sentencing discretion by holding that appellate courts must review all sentences, including those outside the Sentencing Guidelines, under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.
-
E.
Herring v. United States
Herring v. United States is a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case that further limited the application of the exclusionary rule by holding that evidence need not be suppressed when obtained through isolated police negligence rather than deliberate or reckless misconduct.
- 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: Scales v. United States Target entity description: Scales v. United States is a 1961 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of prosecuting active members of organizations advocating violent overthrow of the government under the Smith Act, while requiring proof of specific intent to further those illegal aims.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Screws v. United States
Screws v. United States is a 1945 U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowly interpreted federal civil rights protections in prosecuting state officials for the brutal killing of a Black man, shaping the “willful intent” standard under 18 U.S.C. § 242.
-
C.
Yates v. United States
Yates v. United States is a 1957 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly narrowed the application of the Smith Act by distinguishing between the advocacy of abstract doctrine and the advocacy of concrete action to overthrow the government.
-
D.
Gall v. United States
Gall v. United States is a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified federal sentencing discretion by holding that appellate courts must review all sentences, including those outside the Sentencing Guidelines, under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.
-
E.
Herring v. United States
Herring v. United States is a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case that further limited the application of the exclusionary rule by holding that evidence need not be suppressed when obtained through isolated police negligence rather than deliberate or reckless misconduct.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
Smith Act case ⓘ U.S. Supreme Court case ⓘ criminal law case ⓘ |
| arguedDate |
1960-10-18
ⓘ
1960-10-19 ⓘ |
| citation | 367 U.S. 203 ⓘ |
| clarifies |
distinction between abstract advocacy and active participation with specific intent
ⓘ
limits on criminal liability for association with subversive organizations ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
First Amendment to the United States Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1961-06-05 ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
Felix Frankfurter
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
William J. Brennan Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 1 ⓘ |
| fullName | Scales v. United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holding |
Active membership in an organization advocating violent overthrow can be criminalized if accompanied by specific intent to accomplish the group’s unlawful purposes
ⓘ
Mere nominal or passive membership in such an organization cannot be punished under the Smith Act ⓘ The Smith Act’s membership clause is constitutional as applied to active members with specific intent to further illegal aims ⓘ |
| involvesOrganization | Communist Party of the United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal criminal law ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
First Amendment freedom of association
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
constitutionality of the Smith Act membership clause ⓘ due process under the Fifth Amendment ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Charles E. Whittaker
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Earl Warren NERFINISHED ⓘ Hugo L. Black NERFINISHED ⓘ John Marshall Harlan II NERFINISHED ⓘ Potter Stewart NERFINISHED ⓘ Tom C. Clark NERFINISHED ⓘ William O. Douglas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | John Marshall Harlan II NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| page | 203 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Junius Irving Scales NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Dennis v. United States
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Noto v. United States NERFINISHED ⓘ Yates v. United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| requires |
proof of active membership
ⓘ
proof of specific intent to further the organization’s illegal advocacy ⓘ |
| respondent | United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| statuteInvolved | Smith Act NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| topic |
advocacy of violent overthrow of the government
ⓘ
subversive activities ⓘ |
| volume | 367 ⓘ |
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: Scales v. United States Description of subject: Scales v. United States is a 1961 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of prosecuting active members of organizations advocating violent overthrow of the government under the Smith Act, while requiring proof of specific intent to further those illegal aims.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.