United States v. Bajakajian
E666884
United States v. Bajakajian is a 1998 U.S. Supreme Court case that held, for the first time, that a criminal forfeiture could violate the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause if it is grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offense.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| United States v. Bajakajian canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7476634 — 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: United States v. Bajakajian Context triple: [Timbs v. Indiana, relatedCase, United States v. Bajakajian]
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A.
United States v. Eichman
United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
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B.
United States v. Giordano
United States v. Giordano is a U.S. Supreme Court case that clarified the strict procedural requirements for federal wiretap authorizations and limited who may approve such surveillance orders.
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C.
United States v. Classic
United States v. Classic is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded federal authority over primary elections by holding that Congress can regulate primaries when they are an integral part of the electoral process for federal offices.
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D.
United States v. Guest
United States v. Guest is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the federal government can prosecute private conspiracies to interfere with constitutional rights, particularly the right to travel, under certain circumstances.
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E.
United States v. Gratiot
United States v. Gratiot is an 1840 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld broad federal authority over public lands under the Constitution’s Property Clause.
- 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: United States v. Bajakajian Target entity description: United States v. Bajakajian is a 1998 U.S. Supreme Court case that held, for the first time, that a criminal forfeiture could violate the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause if it is grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offense.
-
A.
United States v. Eichman
United States v. Eichman is a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law banning flag desecration as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
-
B.
United States v. Giordano
United States v. Giordano is a U.S. Supreme Court case that clarified the strict procedural requirements for federal wiretap authorizations and limited who may approve such surveillance orders.
-
C.
United States v. Classic
United States v. Classic is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded federal authority over primary elections by holding that Congress can regulate primaries when they are an integral part of the electoral process for federal offices.
-
D.
United States v. Guest
United States v. Guest is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the federal government can prosecute private conspiracies to interfere with constitutional rights, particularly the right to travel, under certain circumstances.
-
E.
United States v. Gratiot
United States v. Gratiot is an 1840 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld broad federal authority over public lands under the Constitution’s Property Clause.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
legal case ⓘ |
| amountInvolved | $357,144 ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
criminal law ⓘ forfeiture law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | November 4, 1997 ⓘ |
| citation | 524 U.S. 321 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted | Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| constitutionalSignificance | first Supreme Court case to hold a fine unconstitutional under the Excessive Fines Clause ⓘ |
| countryOfCourt | United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | June 22, 1998 ⓘ |
| decisionType | majority decision ⓘ |
| dissentingOpinionBy |
Antonin Scalia
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
David H. Souter NERFINISHED ⓘ Stephen G. Breyer NERFINISHED ⓘ William H. Rehnquist NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 96-1487 ⓘ |
| factPattern | defendant failed to report that he was transporting more than $10,000 out of the United States ⓘ |
| fullName | United States v. Bajakajian NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holding |
A criminal forfeiture violates the Excessive Fines Clause if it is grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offense
ⓘ
The Excessive Fines Clause applies to punitive forfeitures in criminal cases ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Anthony M. Kennedy
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
John Paul Stevens NERFINISHED ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg NERFINISHED ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal ⓘ |
| languageOfOpinion | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue | scope of the Excessive Fines Clause ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Clarence Thomas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| page | 321 ⓘ |
| party |
Hosep Bajakajian
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| precedentFor | analysis of proportionality under the Excessive Fines Clause ⓘ |
| relatedStatute |
18 U.S.C. § 982(a)(1)
ⓘ
31 U.S.C. § 5316 ⓘ 31 U.S.C. § 5322 ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| result | forfeiture order held unconstitutional in part ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | criminal forfeiture of currency ⓘ |
| subsequentCitationFrequency | frequently cited in Eighth Amendment excessive fines jurisprudence ⓘ |
| typeOfForfeiture | criminal forfeiture ⓘ |
| volume | 524 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1998 ⓘ |
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: United States v. Bajakajian Description of subject: United States v. Bajakajian is a 1998 U.S. Supreme Court case that held, for the first time, that a criminal forfeiture could violate the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause if it is grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offense.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.