Dennis v. United States
E147329
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
All labels observed (4)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1293859 — 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: Dennis v. United States Context triple: [Felix Frankfurter, notableCase, Dennis v. United States]
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A.
Dickerson v. United States
Dickerson v. United States is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that reaffirmed the constitutional basis of Miranda warnings and held that Congress could not overrule Miranda v. Arizona by statute.
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B.
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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C.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
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D.
Abrams v. United States
Abrams v. United States was a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the conviction of antiwar activists under federal law and is best known for Justice Holmes’s famous dissent articulating the “marketplace of ideas” concept in free speech jurisprudence.
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E.
Bond v. United States
Bond v. United States is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case that clarified an individual’s ability to raise Tenth Amendment challenges to federal statutes, reinforcing limits on federal power in favor of state sovereignty.
- 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: Dennis v. United States Target entity description: Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
-
A.
Dickerson v. United States
Dickerson v. United States is a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that reaffirmed the constitutional basis of Miranda warnings and held that Congress could not overrule Miranda v. Arizona by statute.
-
B.
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.
-
C.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
-
D.
Abrams v. United States
Abrams v. United States was a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the conviction of antiwar activists under federal law and is best known for Justice Holmes’s famous dissent articulating the “marketplace of ideas” concept in free speech jurisprudence.
-
E.
Bond v. United States
Bond v. United States is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case that clarified an individual’s ability to raise Tenth Amendment challenges to federal statutes, reinforcing limits on federal power in favor of state sovereignty.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (53)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ criminal law case ⓘ landmark case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| charge | conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtDecision |
Fred M. Vinson
ⓘ
linked to:
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson
|
| citation | 341 U.S. 494 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Felix Frankfurter
ⓘ
Robert H. Jackson ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1951-06-04 ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
Hugo L. Black
ⓘ
William O. Douglas ⓘ |
| fullName | Dennis v. United States ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
Cold War
ⓘ
Red Scare ⓘ
linked to:
McCarthyism
|
| holding |
The First Amendment does not protect speech that poses a sufficient threat of grave evil under the gravity of the evil–probability test.
ⓘ
The convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act for conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by force were upheld. ⓘ |
| impact |
Narrowed First Amendment protection for subversive advocacy during the Cold War era.
ⓘ
Provided precedent for upholding restrictions on speech deemed threatening to national security. ⓘ |
| issue |
Whether the Smith Act’s prohibition on conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the government by force violates the First Amendment.
ⓘ
Whether the convictions of Communist Party leaders for conspiracy to advocate violent overthrow were constitutional. ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Harold H. Burton
ⓘ
Sherman Minton ⓘ Stanley F. Reed ⓘ
linked to:
Stanley Forman Reed
Tom C. Clark ⓘ |
| laterTreatment |
Its approach to subversive advocacy was limited by Brandenburg v. Ohio.
ⓘ
linked to:
Brandenburg v. Ohio
|
| legalSubject |
constitutional law
ⓘ
criminal conspiracy ⓘ freedom of speech ⓘ national security law ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ⓘ |
| lowerCourtDisposition | Judgment affirmed ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Fred M. Vinson
ⓘ
linked to:
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson
|
| partyInvolved | Communist Party USA ⓘ |
| petitioner |
Eugene Dennis
ⓘ
Other leaders of the Communist Party USA ⓘ |
| pluralityOpinionBy |
Fred M. Vinson
ⓘ
linked to:
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson
|
| relatedCase |
Brandenburg v. Ohio
ⓘ
Gitlow v. New York ⓘ Schenck v. United States ⓘ Yates v. United States ⓘ |
| relatedDoctrine |
advocacy of illegal action
ⓘ
clear and present danger ⓘ |
| respondent |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| standardApplied | gravity of the evil–probability test ⓘ |
| standardComparedTo | clear and present danger test ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted |
Alien Registration Act of 1940
ⓘ
Smith Act ⓘ |
| term | 1950 Term ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1951 ⓘ |
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: Dennis v. United States Description of subject: Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
Referenced by (15)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Yates v. United States
→
overruledInPart
→
Dennis v. United States (to the extent Dennis allowed broader application of the Smith Act)
ⓘ
linked to: Dennis v. United States
linked to: Dennis v. United States
linked to: Dennis v. United States