Nixon v. United States
E903974
Nixon v. United States is a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court case that held challenges to the Senate’s procedures for conducting impeachment trials are nonjusticiable political questions beyond judicial review.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Nixon v. United States canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11085058 — 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: Nixon v. United States Context triple: [political question doctrine, leadingCase, Nixon v. United States]
-
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.
Nixon v. Condon
Nixon v. Condon is a 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’s delegation of authority to the Democratic Party to exclude Black voters from primary elections as unconstitutional state action under the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
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.
- 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: Nixon v. United States Target entity description: Nixon v. United States is a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court case that held challenges to the Senate’s procedures for conducting impeachment trials are nonjusticiable political questions beyond judicial review.
-
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.
Nixon v. Condon
Nixon v. Condon is a 1932 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’s delegation of authority to the Democratic Party to exclude Black voters from primary elections as unconstitutional state action under the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
United States constitutional law case ⓘ impeachment case ⓘ legal case ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1992-10-14 ⓘ |
| background | Walter L. Nixon, Jr. was impeached and removed from office after a criminal conviction for making false statements to a grand jury ⓘ |
| category |
United States Supreme Court cases decided in 1993
ⓘ
United States impeachment case law ⓘ United States separation of powers case law ⓘ |
| citation | 506 U.S. 224 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Justice Byron R. White
ⓘ
linked to:
Byron R. White
Justice David H. Souter ⓘ
linked to:
David H. Souter
Justice Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ
linked to:
Harry A. Blackmun
|
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution
ⓘ
Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution ⓘ Article III of the U.S. Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1993-01-13 ⓘ |
| defendantArgument | The Constitution commits impeachment trials solely to the Senate and bars judicial review ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 91-740 ⓘ |
| fullName | Nixon v. United States ⓘ |
| holding |
Challenges to the Senate’s procedures for conducting impeachment trials present nonjusticiable political questions
ⓘ
The federal courts lack authority to review the Senate’s impeachment trial procedures ⓘ The word "try" in the Impeachment Trial Clause does not impose judicially enforceable limits on the Senate’s conduct of impeachment trials ⓘ |
| impact |
Confirmed that federal courts will not review the Senate’s conduct of impeachment trials
ⓘ
Frequently cited in cases and scholarship on the political question doctrine and impeachment ⓘ |
| issue | Whether the judiciary may review the Senate’s procedures in impeachment trials ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
Senate has sole power to try impeachments
ⓘ
political question doctrine limits judicial review of impeachment proceedings ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ⓘ |
| lowerCourtDisposition | Dismissal of Nixon’s claim affirmed ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
ⓘ
linked to:
William H. Rehnquist
|
| opinionType | unanimous in judgment ⓘ |
| page | 224 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Walter L. Nixon, Jr. ⓘ |
| plaintiffArgument | The Senate’s use of a committee to receive evidence violated the constitutional requirement that the Senate "try" impeachments ⓘ |
| proceduralHistory |
Nixon filed suit in federal court challenging the Senate’s impeachment trial procedures
ⓘ
The D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal ⓘ The district court dismissed the case as a nonjusticiable political question ⓘ |
| relatedPerson | Walter L. Nixon, Jr., former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| result | Judgment of the lower court affirmed ⓘ |
| shortName | Nixon ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
impeachment
ⓘ
judicial review ⓘ political question doctrine ⓘ separation of powers ⓘ |
| volume | 506 ⓘ |
| year | 1993 ⓘ |
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: Nixon v. United States Description of subject: Nixon v. United States is a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court case that held challenges to the Senate’s procedures for conducting impeachment trials are nonjusticiable political questions beyond judicial review.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.