Scopes v. State
E170656
Scopes v. State was the 1927 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which tested the legality of teaching evolution in public schools and highlighted the clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Scopes v. State canonical | 2 |
| Scopes v. State (1927) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1440048 — 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: Scopes v. State Context triple: [Tennessee Supreme Court, notableCase, Scopes v. State]
-
A.
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly strengthened free speech protections by establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for when advocacy of violence can be punished under the First Amendment.
-
B.
Eisenstadt v. Baird
Eisenstadt v. Baird is a landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended the right to possess and use contraceptives to unmarried individuals, significantly advancing privacy and equal protection jurisprudence.
-
C.
Cohens v. Virginia
Cohens v. Virginia is an 1821 U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed the Court’s authority to review state criminal proceedings involving federal law, strengthening federal judicial power over the states.
-
D.
Alden v. Maine
Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
-
E.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Bolling v. Sharpe is a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racial segregation in Washington, D.C. public schools unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
- 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: Scopes v. State Target entity description: Scopes v. State was the 1927 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which tested the legality of teaching evolution in public schools and highlighted the clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
-
A.
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that significantly strengthened free speech protections by establishing the "imminent lawless action" test for when advocacy of violence can be punished under the First Amendment.
-
B.
Eisenstadt v. Baird
Eisenstadt v. Baird is a landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that extended the right to possess and use contraceptives to unmarried individuals, significantly advancing privacy and equal protection jurisprudence.
-
C.
Cohens v. Virginia
Cohens v. Virginia is an 1821 U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed the Court’s authority to review state criminal proceedings involving federal law, strengthening federal judicial power over the states.
-
D.
Alden v. Maine
Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
-
E.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Bolling v. Sharpe is a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that held racial segregation in Washington, D.C. public schools unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Tennessee Supreme Court decision
ⓘ
appeal decision ⓘ court case ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | Scopes Monkey Trial appeal decision ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
criminal law ⓘ education law ⓘ |
| constitutionalRuling | court declined to rule on constitutionality of Butler Act ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Tennessee Supreme Court ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1927-01-17 ⓘ |
| defendant | John T. Scopes ⓘ |
| effectOnStatute |
Butler Act
ⓘ
surface form:
Butler Act left in force
|
| fineImposedByTrialCourt | 100 US dollars ⓘ |
| fullCaseName |
State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes
ⓘ
surface form:
John Thomas Scopes v. The State
|
| historicalSignificance |
key case in evolution–creationism controversy in the United States
ⓘ
symbol of clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism ⓘ |
| holding | conviction reversed on technical grounds ⓘ |
| involvedPerson |
Clarence Darrow
ⓘ
John T. Scopes ⓘ William Jennings Bryan ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Tennessee ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue | validity of Tennessee Butler Act ⓘ |
| locationOfTrial | Dayton, Tennessee ⓘ |
| lowerCourt |
Criminal Court for Rhea County
ⓘ
surface form:
Criminal Court of Rhea County, Tennessee
|
| lowerCourtCase |
Scopes "Monkey" Trial
ⓘ
surface form:
Scopes Monkey Trial
|
| lowerCourtJudge | John T. Raulston ⓘ |
| notableFor |
appeal of the Scopes Monkey Trial conviction
ⓘ
public debate over evolution in schools ⓘ |
| party |
John T. Scopes
ⓘ
Tennessee ⓘ
surface form:
State of Tennessee
|
| reasonForReversal | improper jury sentencing of fine ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Edwards v. Aguillard
ⓘ
Epperson v. Arkansas ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
academic freedom
ⓘ
separation of church and state ⓘ |
| resultOnAppeal | conviction reversed ⓘ |
| sentencingError | judge set fine instead of jury ⓘ |
| shortName | Scopes v. State self-link ⓘ |
| state | Tennessee ⓘ |
| statuteInvolved | Butler Act ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
constitutionality of anti-evolution statute
ⓘ
teaching of evolution in public schools ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 20th century ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1927 ⓘ |
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: Scopes v. State Description of subject: Scopes v. State was the 1927 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which tested the legality of teaching evolution in public schools and highlighted the clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Scopes v. State (1927)