Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989)
E403309
Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified which state statute of limitations applies to federal civil rights actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Owens v. Okure | 1 |
| Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3981303 — 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: Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989) Context triple: [42 U.S.C. § 1983, interpretedBy, Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989)]
-
A.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the key burden-shifting framework for proving employment discrimination under Title VII.
-
B.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
-
C.
Hicklin v. Orbeck
Hicklin v. Orbeck is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Alaska’s local-hire law for violating the Privileges and Immunities Clause by discriminating against nonresident workers.
-
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.
Corrigan v. Buckley
Corrigan v. Buckley is a 1926 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the enforceability of racially restrictive covenants in property deeds, paving the way for widespread legalized housing segregation until later overturned in effect by subsequent civil rights rulings.
- 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: Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989) Target entity description: Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified which state statute of limitations applies to federal civil rights actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
-
A.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the key burden-shifting framework for proving employment discrimination under Title VII.
-
B.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
-
C.
Hicklin v. Orbeck
Hicklin v. Orbeck is a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Alaska’s local-hire law for violating the Privileges and Immunities Clause by discriminating against nonresident workers.
-
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.
Corrigan v. Buckley
Corrigan v. Buckley is a 1926 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the enforceability of racially restrictive covenants in property deeds, paving the way for widespread legalized housing segregation until later overturned in effect by subsequent civil rights rulings.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (35)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
legal case ⓘ |
| appliesIn | all U.S. federal courts ⓘ |
| appliesTo | federal civil rights actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ |
| appliesWhen | a state has multiple statutes of limitations for different types of personal injury claims ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
federal civil rights litigation ⓘ federal courts ⓘ |
| bindingAuthorityIn | United States federal courts on questions of § 1983 limitations periods ⓘ |
| citation | 488 U.S. 235 ⓘ |
| citationStyle |
Owens v. Okure
ⓘ
linked to:
Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989)
|
| clarified | application of state statutes of limitations to federal § 1983 claims ⓘ |
| concerns |
borrowing state law for federal causes of action
ⓘ
procedural rules affecting federal civil rights enforcement ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1989 ⓘ |
| effect |
promoted uniformity in limitations periods for § 1983 actions within each state
ⓘ
reduced forum-specific variations in § 1983 limitations periods ⓘ |
| followedRuleFrom | Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261 (1985) ⓘ |
| holding | When a state has multiple statutes of limitations for personal injury actions, courts should apply the state’s general or residual personal injury statute of limitations to § 1983 claims. ⓘ |
| issue | Which state statute of limitations applies to § 1983 actions when a state has multiple personal injury limitations periods. ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple | Federal courts borrow the state statute of limitations most analogous to § 1983 claims, which is the general personal injury limitations period. ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
42 U.S.C. § 1983
ⓘ
civil rights ⓘ statute of limitations ⓘ |
| page | 235 ⓘ |
| precedentFor | selection of limitations period in § 1983 cases ⓘ |
| refinedRuleFrom | Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261 (1985) ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| rule | Courts should not select specialized or shorter personal injury limitations periods for § 1983 claims when a general personal injury period exists. ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted | 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ |
| volume | 488 ⓘ |
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: Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989) Description of subject: Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that clarified which state statute of limitations applies to federal civil rights actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989)