Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
E403303
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that redefined qualified immunity by holding that government officials are shielded from civil liability so long as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Harlow et al. v. Fitzgerald | 1 |
| Harlow v. Fitzgerald | 1 |
| Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3981297 — 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: Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982) Context triple: [42 U.S.C. § 1983, interpretedBy, Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)]
-
A.
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that Congress may, under its Fourteenth Amendment enforcement powers, authorize private lawsuits for money damages against state governments despite Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity.
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B.
Eisenstadt v. Baird
Eisenstadt v. Baird is a landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended the right to possess and use contraceptives to unmarried individuals, significantly advancing privacy and equal protection jurisprudence.
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C.
Nixon v. Fitzgerald
Nixon v. Fitzgerald is a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that established absolute immunity from civil damages liability for a President’s official acts.
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D.
Lau v. Nichols
Lau v. Nichols is a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools must take affirmative steps to help non-English-speaking students overcome language barriers to ensure equal educational opportunity under federal civil rights law.
-
E.
Agostini v. Felton
Agostini v. Felton is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that reshaped Establishment Clause doctrine by allowing public school teachers to provide remedial instruction in religious schools under certain safeguards.
- 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: Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982) Target entity description: Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that redefined qualified immunity by holding that government officials are shielded from civil liability so long as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.
-
A.
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer
Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that Congress may, under its Fourteenth Amendment enforcement powers, authorize private lawsuits for money damages against state governments despite Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity.
-
B.
Eisenstadt v. Baird
Eisenstadt v. Baird is a landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended the right to possess and use contraceptives to unmarried individuals, significantly advancing privacy and equal protection jurisprudence.
-
C.
Nixon v. Fitzgerald
Nixon v. Fitzgerald is a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that established absolute immunity from civil damages liability for a President’s official acts.
-
D.
Lau v. Nichols
Lau v. Nichols is a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools must take affirmative steps to help non-English-speaking students overcome language barriers to ensure equal educational opportunity under federal civil rights law.
-
E.
Agostini v. Felton
Agostini v. Felton is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that reshaped Establishment Clause doctrine by allowing public school teachers to provide remedial instruction in religious schools under certain safeguards.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark qualified immunity case ⓘ |
| appliedIn |
Bivens-type actions for damages
ⓘ
Section 1983 actions by analogy ⓘ |
| appliesTo | federal executive officials performing discretionary functions ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights litigation
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ federal courts and procedure ⓘ |
| citation | 457 U.S. 800 ⓘ |
| citationInLaterCases |
Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
ⓘ
Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511 (1985) ⓘ Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009) ⓘ Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001) ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Harry A. Blackmun
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Harry A. Blackmun
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Thurgood Marshall
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1982-06-24 ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
William H. Rehnquist
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William H. Rehnquist
|
| docketNumber | 80-945 ⓘ |
| doesNotApplyTo |
President of the United States
ⓘ
surface form:
the President of the United States
|
| effectOnLitigation | facilitated early resolution of insubstantial claims on summary judgment ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Harlow et al. v. Fitzgerald
|
| holding | Government officials performing discretionary functions are shielded from civil damages liability as long as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. ⓘ |
| impact | redefined the modern doctrine of qualified immunity in U.S. law ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Warren E. Burger
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
Byron R. White ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Byron R. White
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Harry A. Blackmun
Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Thurgood Marshall
William H. Rehnquist ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William H. Rehnquist
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| keyPhrase | clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
civil liability for constitutional violations
ⓘ
qualified immunity of government officials ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Lewis F. Powell Jr.
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.
|
| overruledOrModifiedPriorLaw | subjective good-faith component of qualified immunity ⓘ |
| petitioner | Harlow ⓘ |
| proceduralPosture | appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ⓘ |
| reasoningFocus | balancing the need to hold public officials accountable with the need to shield them from harassment and distraction ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Nixon v. Fitzgerald
ⓘ
surface form:
Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982)
|
| relatedDoctrine | absolute immunity for the President from civil damages liability for official acts ⓘ |
| replacedSubjectiveStandardWith | purely objective test based on clearly established law ⓘ |
| respondent | A. Ernest Fitzgerald ⓘ |
| standardEstablished | clearly established law standard for qualified immunity ⓘ |
| standardType | objective reasonableness standard ⓘ |
| term | October Term 1981 ⓘ |
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: Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982) Description of subject: Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that redefined qualified immunity by holding that government officials are shielded from civil liability so long as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
→
hasNotableCase
→
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Harlow v. Fitzgerald
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
→
fullCaseName
→
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Harlow et al. v. Fitzgerald