Morrison v. Olson
E722001
Morrison v. Olson is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act, clarifying limits on presidential removal power and separation of powers.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Morrison v. Olson canonical | 5 |
| Morrison v. Olson (D.C. Circuit phase) | 1 |
| Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8252846 — 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: Morrison v. Olson Context triple: [Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, isCitedIn, Morrison v. Olson]
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A.
Nixon v. Fitzgerald
Nixon v. Fitzgerald is a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that established absolute immunity from civil damages liability for a President’s official acts.
-
B.
United States v. John W. Dean III
United States v. John W. Dean III is the federal criminal case in which former White House Counsel John Dean pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his role in the Watergate scandal.
-
C.
United States v. John D. Ehrlichman
United States v. John D. Ehrlichman was a criminal case arising from the Watergate scandal in which former Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman was prosecuted for his role in the administration’s illegal activities and subsequent cover-up.
-
D.
United States v. John N. Mitchell et al.
United States v. John N. Mitchell et al. was a major Watergate-era criminal case in which former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and other top Nixon administration officials were prosecuted for their roles in the scandal.
-
E.
United States v. Nixon
United States v. Nixon was a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited presidential privilege and compelled President Richard Nixon to release the Watergate tapes, reinforcing the principle that not even the president is above the law.
- 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: Morrison v. Olson Target entity description: Morrison v. Olson is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act, clarifying limits on presidential removal power and separation of powers.
-
A.
Nixon v. Fitzgerald
Nixon v. Fitzgerald is a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that established absolute immunity from civil damages liability for a President’s official acts.
-
B.
United States v. John W. Dean III
United States v. John W. Dean III is the federal criminal case in which former White House Counsel John Dean pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his role in the Watergate scandal.
-
C.
United States v. John D. Ehrlichman
United States v. John D. Ehrlichman was a criminal case arising from the Watergate scandal in which former Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman was prosecuted for his role in the administration’s illegal activities and subsequent cover-up.
-
D.
United States v. John N. Mitchell et al.
United States v. John N. Mitchell et al. was a major Watergate-era criminal case in which former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and other top Nixon administration officials were prosecuted for their roles in the scandal.
-
E.
United States v. Nixon
United States v. Nixon was a landmark 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited presidential privilege and compelled President Richard Nixon to release the Watergate tapes, reinforcing the principle that not even the president is above the law.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
federal courts case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
administrative law
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ federal criminal procedure ⓘ separation of powers ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1988-04-26 ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtDecision | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| citation | 487 U.S. 654 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Appointments Clause of Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution
ⓘ
linked to:
Appointments Clause
Article II Take Care Clause ⓘ Article III limitations on judicial power ⓘ separation of powers doctrine ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decidedIn | October Term 1987 ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1988-06-29 ⓘ |
| defendant |
Theodore B. Olson
ⓘ
linked to:
Theodore Olson
|
| dissentingOpinionBy | Antonin Scalia ⓘ |
| dissentType | solo dissent ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 87-1279 ⓘ |
| fullName |
Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988)
ⓘ
linked to:
Morrison v. Olson
|
| holding |
The Act does not impermissibly interfere with the President’s constitutional duty to ensure the faithful execution of the laws.
ⓘ
The independent counsel is an inferior officer whose appointment by a special court is consistent with the Appointments Clause. ⓘ The independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act do not violate the separation of powers principle. ⓘ The restrictions on the Attorney General’s power to remove an independent counsel for cause are constitutional. ⓘ |
| impact |
became a leading precedent on limits of presidential removal power
ⓘ
frequently cited in later debates over the unitary executive theory ⓘ upheld the constitutionality of the independent counsel mechanism until its later expiration and replacement by other special counsel regulations ⓘ |
| issue | constitutionality of the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 ⓘ |
| joinedMajority |
Antonin Scalia
ⓘ
Byron R. White ⓘ Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ Thurgood Marshall ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
for-cause removal protection
ⓘ
independent counsel ⓘ inferior officer ⓘ principal officer ⓘ special division of the D.C. Circuit ⓘ |
| lowerCourtCitation | 838 F.2d 1345 (D.C. Cir. 1988) ⓘ |
| lowerCourtDisposition | affirmed in part and reversed in part ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| notableFeature | Justice Scalia’s dissent argued that the decision undermined the unitary executive and would be viewed as a constitutional mistake. ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ⓘ |
| plaintiff | Alexia Morrison ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted |
Ethics in Government Act of 1978
ⓘ
linked to:
Ethics in Government Act
|
| statuteSectionInterpreted | Title VI of the Ethics in Government Act (independent counsel provisions) ⓘ |
| vote | 7-1 decision ⓘ |
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: Morrison v. Olson Description of subject: Morrison v. Olson is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act, clarifying limits on presidential removal power and separation of powers.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Judge Laurence Silberman
linked to: Morrison v. Olson
linked to: Morrison v. Olson
Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
→
relatedCase
→
Morrison v. Olson
ⓘ