United States v. Comstock
E9785
United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| United States v. Comstock canonical | 2 |
| United States v. Comstock et al. | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T61043 — 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. Comstock Context triple: [Necessary and Proper Clause, majorCase, United States v. Comstock]
-
A.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
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B.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
C.
Hines v. Davidowitz
Hines v. Davidowitz is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that held federal law preempts conflicting state alien-registration laws under the Supremacy Clause.
-
D.
Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council
Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a Massachusetts law restricting state business with Burma was preempted by federal sanctions under the Supremacy Clause.
-
E.
Wickard v. Filburn
Wickard v. Filburn is a landmark 1942 U.S. Supreme Court case that dramatically expanded federal regulatory power by holding that even purely local, non-commercial activity could be regulated under the Commerce Clause if it had a substantial effect on interstate commerce.
- 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. Comstock Target entity description: United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
-
A.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
-
B.
Chiafalo v. Washington
Chiafalo v. Washington is a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that unanimously upheld states’ authority to penalize or replace “faithless electors” who do not vote in line with their state’s popular vote in presidential elections.
-
C.
Hines v. Davidowitz
Hines v. Davidowitz is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that held federal law preempts conflicting state alien-registration laws under the Supremacy Clause.
-
D.
Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council
Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a Massachusetts law restricting state business with Burma was preempted by federal sanctions under the Supremacy Clause.
-
E.
Wickard v. Filburn
Wickard v. Filburn is a landmark 1942 U.S. Supreme Court case that dramatically expanded federal regulatory power by holding that even purely local, non-commercial activity could be regulated under the Commerce Clause if it had a substantial effect on interstate commerce.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
federal court case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil commitment
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ federal powers ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 2010-01-12 ⓘ |
| citation |
130 S. Ct. 1949
ⓘ
176 L. Ed. 2d 878 ⓘ 560 U.S. 126 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
Samuel A. Alito Jr. ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution
ⓘ
Necessary and Proper Clause ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2010-05-17 ⓘ |
| decisionType | majority decision with concurrences and dissent ⓘ |
| dissentBy | Clarence Thomas ⓘ |
| dissentJoinedBy | Antonin Scalia ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 08-1224 ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
United States v. Comstock
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
United States v. Comstock et al.
|
| holding | Congress has authority under the Necessary and Proper Clause to enact 18 U.S.C. § 4248, permitting civil commitment of mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Antonin Scalia
ⓘ
surface form:
Antonin Scalia (in part)
Clarence Thomas ⓘ
surface form:
Clarence Thomas (in part)
John G. Roberts Jr. ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Sonia Sotomayor ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal jurisdiction ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
federal civil commitment of sexually dangerous persons
ⓘ
scope of the Necessary and Proper Clause ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ⓘ |
| lowerCourtCitation | 551 F.3d 274 ⓘ |
| lowerCourtHolding | held that 18 U.S.C. § 4248 exceeded Congress’s authority ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina ⓘ |
| party |
Graydon Earl Comstock Jr.
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| rearguedDate | 2010-04-19 ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
enumerated powers
ⓘ
federalism ⓘ sexually dangerous person ⓘ |
| result | Fourth Circuit judgment reversed ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted | 18 U.S.C. § 4248 ⓘ |
| subsequentCitationFrequency | frequently cited in cases involving the Necessary and Proper Clause ⓘ |
| volumeInUnitedStatesReports | 560 ⓘ |
| yearOfDecision | 2010 ⓘ |
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. Comstock Description of subject: United States v. Comstock is a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Congress’s authority to civilly commit mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoners beyond their release date under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
United States v. Comstock et al.