Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc.
E166649
Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified the standards for proving age discrimination under the ADEA, particularly the role of pretext and circumstantial evidence in employment discrimination cases.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1461666 — 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: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. Context triple: [McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, influenced, Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc.]
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A.
Romer v. Evans
Romer v. Evans is a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment targeting gay, lesbian, and bisexual people as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
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B.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
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C.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the key burden-shifting framework for proving employment discrimination under Title VII.
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D.
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. is a landmark 1916 New York Court of Appeals case that expanded manufacturers’ liability in negligence to consumers, even without privity of contract.
-
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: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. Target entity description: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified the standards for proving age discrimination under the ADEA, particularly the role of pretext and circumstantial evidence in employment discrimination cases.
-
A.
Romer v. Evans
Romer v. Evans is a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment targeting gay, lesbian, and bisexual people as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
-
B.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
-
C.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the key burden-shifting framework for proving employment discrimination under Title VII.
-
D.
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. is a landmark 1916 New York Court of Appeals case that expanded manufacturers’ liability in negligence to consumers, even without privity of contract.
-
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 |
ADEA case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ age discrimination case ⓘ employment discrimination case ⓘ |
| abbreviation | ADEA ⓘ |
| citation |
120 S. Ct. 2097
ⓘ
147 L. Ed. 2d 105 ⓘ 530 U.S. 133 ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2000-06-12 ⓘ |
| decisionType | majority opinion ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 99-536 ⓘ |
| employeeAgeGroup | over 40 ⓘ |
| employmentAction | termination of employment ⓘ |
| holding |
A court may not require a plaintiff to introduce additional, independent evidence of discrimination beyond proof of pretext
ⓘ
A plaintiff’s prima facie case of discrimination combined with sufficient evidence that the employer’s stated reason is false may permit a finding of liability ⓘ Judgment as a matter of law is inappropriate when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, would allow a reasonable jury to find discrimination ⓘ |
| importance |
frequently cited in federal employment discrimination litigation
ⓘ
leading precedent on proof structure in ADEA cases ⓘ |
| issue |
role of pretext evidence in employment discrimination cases
ⓘ
standard for proving age discrimination under the ADEA ⓘ use of circumstantial evidence to prove intentional discrimination ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| keyConcept |
burden-shifting
ⓘ
circumstantial evidence ⓘ judgment as a matter of law ⓘ pretext ⓘ prima facie case of discrimination ⓘ |
| languageOfRecord | English ⓘ |
| legalArea |
age discrimination law
ⓘ
employment law ⓘ federal anti-discrimination law ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ⓘ |
| lowerCourtDisposition | judgment as a matter of law for the employer ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Sandra Day O’Connor
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
|
| partyType |
corporate employer
ⓘ
individual employee ⓘ |
| petitioner | Roger Reeves ⓘ |
| proceduralPosture | review of a judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50 ⓘ |
| respondent | Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. ⓘ |
| result | judgment of the Court of Appeals reversed ⓘ |
| standardApplied | McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted | Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ⓘ |
| supremeCourtDisposition | reversal of judgment as a matter of law ⓘ |
| term | October Term 1999 ⓘ |
| vote | 9-0 ⓘ |
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: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. Description of subject: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified the standards for proving age discrimination under the ADEA, particularly the role of pretext and circumstantial evidence in employment discrimination cases.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine
→
citedIn
→
Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc.
ⓘ