New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
E166646
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the “actual malice” standard, greatly expanding First Amendment protections for the press in defamation cases involving public officials.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| New York Times Co. v. Sullivan canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1461607 — 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: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan Context triple: [William J. Brennan Jr., notableWork, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan]
-
A.
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States is a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers, sharply limiting the government’s power to impose prior restraint on the media.
-
B.
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the government's authority to regulate indecent material on public airwaves, stemming from a radio broadcast of George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" monologue.
-
C.
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly strengthened free speech protections by establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for when advocacy of violence can be punished under the First Amendment.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette is a landmark 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Robert H. Jackson, that held the government cannot compel public school students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, firmly protecting freedom of speech and religious liberty.
- 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: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan Target entity description: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the “actual malice” standard, greatly expanding First Amendment protections for the press in defamation cases involving public officials.
-
A.
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States is a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers, sharply limiting the government’s power to impose prior restraint on the media.
-
B.
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the government's authority to regulate indecent material on public airwaves, stemming from a radio broadcast of George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" monologue.
-
C.
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly strengthened free speech protections by establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for when advocacy of violence can be punished under the First Amendment.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette is a landmark 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Robert H. Jackson, that held the government cannot compel public school students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, firmly protecting freedom of speech and religious liberty.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
defamation case ⓘ landmark First Amendment case ⓘ |
| appliesTo | public officials ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1964-01-06 ⓘ |
| citation | 376 U.S. 254 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Arthur J. Goldberg
ⓘ
Hugo L. Black ⓘ William O. Douglas ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionAppliedThrough | Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1964-03-09 ⓘ |
| definedTerm | actual malice is knowledge that a statement was false or reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. ⓘ |
| effect | made it harder for public officials to win libel suits in the United States ⓘ |
| establishedStandard | actual malice ⓘ |
| expandedProtectionFor |
press
ⓘ
speech criticizing public officials ⓘ |
| holding |
A public official cannot recover damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to official conduct unless the official proves the statement was made with actual malice.
ⓘ
The First Amendment limits a state’s power to award damages in libel actions brought by public officials against critics of their official conduct. ⓘ |
| involvedAdvertisement | Heed Their Rising Voices ⓘ |
| involvedPublication | The New York Times ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
Earl Warren ⓘ Hugo L. Black ⓘ John M. Harlan II ⓘ Potter Stewart ⓘ Tom C. Clark ⓘ William O. Douglas ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| laterExtendedTo | public figures ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
First Amendment
constitutional law ⓘ defamation law ⓘ freedom of the press ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | Supreme Court of Alabama ⓘ |
| page | 254 ⓘ |
| petitioner | The New York Times Company ⓘ |
| rearguedDate | 1964-01-07 ⓘ |
| recognizedPrinciple | debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open. ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
civil rights movement
ⓘ
criticism of police conduct in Montgomery, Alabama ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent | L. B. Sullivan ⓘ |
| stateLawAtIssue | Alabama libel law ⓘ |
| volume | 376 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1964 ⓘ |
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: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan Description of subject: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the “actual malice” standard, greatly expanding First Amendment protections for the press in defamation cases involving public officials.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
William J. Brennan Jr.