City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
E403308
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established when municipalities can be held liable under § 1983 for constitutional violations resulting from inadequate police training, adopting a “deliberate indifference” standard.
All labels observed (3)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3981302 — 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: City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989) Context triple: [42 U.S.C. § 1983, interpretedBy, City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)]
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A.
Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.
Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. is a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the standard for proving discriminatory intent in equal protection challenges to facially neutral government actions, particularly in the context of zoning and housing discrimination.
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B.
McDonald v. City of Chicago
McDonald v. City of Chicago is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
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C.
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia is a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously ruled that Philadelphia violated a Catholic foster care agency’s religious freedom by excluding it from the foster program over its refusal to certify same-sex couples.
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D.
Cooley v. Board of Wardens
Cooley v. Board of Wardens is an 1852 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the scope of the Commerce Clause by allowing states to regulate certain local aspects of commerce, such as port pilotage, without violating federal authority.
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E.
Cannon v. University of Chicago
Cannon v. University of Chicago is a landmark 1979 U.S. Supreme Court case that recognized an implied private right of action for individuals to sue under Title IX for sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
- 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: City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989) Target entity description: City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established when municipalities can be held liable under § 1983 for constitutional violations resulting from inadequate police training, adopting a “deliberate indifference” standard.
-
A.
Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.
Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. is a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the standard for proving discriminatory intent in equal protection challenges to facially neutral government actions, particularly in the context of zoning and housing discrimination.
-
B.
McDonald v. City of Chicago
McDonald v. City of Chicago is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
C.
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia is a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously ruled that Philadelphia violated a Catholic foster care agency’s religious freedom by excluding it from the foster program over its refusal to certify same-sex couples.
-
D.
Cooley v. Board of Wardens
Cooley v. Board of Wardens is an 1852 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the scope of the Commerce Clause by allowing states to regulate certain local aspects of commerce, such as port pilotage, without violating federal authority.
-
E.
Cannon v. University of Chicago
Cannon v. University of Chicago is a landmark 1979 U.S. Supreme Court case that recognized an implied private right of action for individuals to sue under Title IX for sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Section 1983 case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ civil rights case ⓘ municipal liability case ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
municipalities
ⓘ
police departments ⓘ training policies for law enforcement officers ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil rights law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ local government law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1988-11-07 ⓘ |
| citation | 489 U.S. 378 ⓘ |
| citationStyle | City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989) self-linksurface differs ⓘ |
| clarifies |
Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978)
ⓘ
surface form:
Monell v. Department of Social Services
|
| concurrenceBy |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
Antonin Scalia ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Antonin Scalia
|
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Fourteenth Amendment
ⓘ
surface form:
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
|
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1989-02-28 ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 86-1088 ⓘ |
| factSummary |
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
The case involved a detainee, Geraldine Harris, who alleged that the City of Canton failed to provide adequate medical attention due to inadequate police training.
|
| fullName |
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
City of Canton, Ohio v. Geraldine Harris
|
| holding | A municipality can be liable under § 1983 for constitutional violations resulting from its failure to train employees only where the failure amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights of persons with whom the employees come into contact. ⓘ |
| importance | Landmark decision defining when inadequate police training can give rise to municipal liability under § 1983. ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
William H. Rehnquist
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
Antonin Scalia ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Antonin Scalia
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Harry A. Blackmun
John Paul Stevens ⓘ
surface form:
Justice John Paul Stevens
Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Thurgood Marshall
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
failure-to-train liability
ⓘ
policy or custom requirement for municipal liability ⓘ |
| languageOfOpinion | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
Fourteenth Amendment due process rights
ⓘ
failure to train police officers ⓘ municipal liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Byron R. White
|
| page | 378 ⓘ |
| priorHistory | Harris v. City of Canton, 725 F.2d 371 (6th Cir. 1984) ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| requiresShowing | that the need for more or different training is so obvious, and the inadequacy so likely to result in constitutional violations, that policymakers can reasonably be said to have been deliberately indifferent. ⓘ |
| result | Judgment of the Court of Appeals vacated and case remanded. ⓘ |
| standardEstablished | deliberate indifference ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted | 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ |
| subsequentHistory | Remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ⓘ |
| volume | 489 ⓘ |
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: City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989) Description of subject: City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established when municipalities can be held liable under § 1983 for constitutional violations resulting from inadequate police training, adopting a “deliberate indifference” standard.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
→
fullName
→
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
subject surface form:
City of Canton v. Harris
this entity surface form:
City of Canton, Ohio v. Geraldine Harris
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
→
factSummary
→
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
subject surface form:
City of Canton v. Harris
this entity surface form:
The case involved a detainee, Geraldine Harris, who alleged that the City of Canton failed to provide adequate medical attention due to inadequate police training.
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
→
citationStyle
→
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
subject surface form:
City of Canton v. Harris