Butler Act
E31047
The Butler Act was a Tennessee state law enacted in 1925 that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools, becoming infamous as the focus of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Butler Act canonical | 7 |
| Butler Act left in force | 1 |
| Tennessee Butler Act | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T243024 — 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: Butler Act Context triple: [Scopes "Monkey" Trial, lawInvolved, Butler Act]
-
A.
Judiciary Act of 1891
The Judiciary Act of 1891 was a landmark U.S. federal statute that created the intermediate federal courts of appeals, significantly restructuring the federal judiciary and reducing the Supreme Court’s mandatory caseload.
-
B.
McMahon Act
The McMahon Act is a landmark 1946 U.S. law that established civilian control over nuclear energy and restricted the sharing of atomic information, laying the foundation for American nuclear policy during the early Cold War.
-
C.
Judiciary Act of 1870
The Judiciary Act of 1870 is a U.S. federal law that created the Department of Justice and centralized federal law enforcement and legal representation under the Attorney General.
-
D.
’34 Act
The ’34 Act is a foundational U.S. federal securities law that regulates secondary trading of securities, mandates ongoing disclosure by public companies, and established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
-
E.
Taft–Hartley Act
The Taft–Hartley Act is a 1947 U.S. federal labor law that significantly restricted the powers of labor unions and amended the original National Labor Relations Act.
- 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: Butler Act Target entity description: The Butler Act was a Tennessee state law enacted in 1925 that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools, becoming infamous as the focus of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.
-
A.
Judiciary Act of 1891
The Judiciary Act of 1891 was a landmark U.S. federal statute that created the intermediate federal courts of appeals, significantly restructuring the federal judiciary and reducing the Supreme Court’s mandatory caseload.
-
B.
McMahon Act
The McMahon Act is a landmark 1946 U.S. law that established civilian control over nuclear energy and restricted the sharing of atomic information, laying the foundation for American nuclear policy during the early Cold War.
-
C.
Judiciary Act of 1870
The Judiciary Act of 1870 is a U.S. federal law that created the Department of Justice and centralized federal law enforcement and legal representation under the Attorney General.
-
D.
’34 Act
The ’34 Act is a foundational U.S. federal securities law that regulates secondary trading of securities, mandates ongoing disclosure by public companies, and established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
-
E.
Taft–Hartley Act
The Taft–Hartley Act is a 1947 U.S. federal labor law that significantly restricted the powers of labor unions and amended the original National Labor Relations Act.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Tennessee state law
ⓘ
anti-evolution law ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
public schools in Tennessee
ⓘ
public universities in Tennessee ⓘ |
| constitutionalIssue |
freedom of speech
ⓘ
separation of church and state ⓘ |
| controversy | conflict between modern science and religious fundamentalism ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| dateEnacted | 1925-03-21 ⓘ |
| dateRepealed | 1967-05-18 ⓘ |
| defendantInNotableTrial | John T. Scopes ⓘ |
| defenseAttorneyInNotableTrial | Clarence Darrow ⓘ |
| fineMaximumUSD | 500 ⓘ |
| fineMinimumUSD | 100 ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | 1920s United States ⓘ |
| inspired | similar anti-evolution statutes in other U.S. states ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
Tennessee
ⓘ
surface form:
State of Tennessee
|
| languageFocus | human evolution ⓘ |
| legacy |
catalyst for public debate on evolution in schools
ⓘ
symbol of legal opposition to teaching evolution ⓘ |
| legalDomain |
constitutional law
ⓘ
education law ⓘ |
| legalStatus | repealed ⓘ |
| legislativeBody | Tennessee General Assembly ⓘ |
| locationOfNotableTrial | Dayton, Tennessee ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage |
international
ⓘ
national ⓘ |
| namedAfter | John Washington Butler ⓘ |
| notableCase |
Scopes "Monkey" Trial
ⓘ
surface form:
Scopes Monkey Trial
State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes ⓘ |
| penalty | fine for teachers who violated the law ⓘ |
| prohibits |
teaching of human evolution in public schools
ⓘ
teaching that humans descended from a lower order of animals ⓘ |
| prosecutionAttorneyInNotableTrial | William Jennings Bryan ⓘ |
| region |
Southern United States
ⓘ
surface form:
American South
|
| relatedTo |
academic freedom
ⓘ
creation–evolution controversy ⓘ religion in public education ⓘ |
| repealedBy | Tennessee General Assembly ⓘ |
| sponsor | John Washington Butler ⓘ |
| state | Tennessee ⓘ |
| stateGovernorAtSigning |
Austin Peay State University
ⓘ
surface form:
Austin Peay
|
| subjectArea | biology education ⓘ |
| timeInForce | 1925–1967 ⓘ |
| trialYear | 1925 ⓘ |
| yearEnacted | 1925 ⓘ |
| yearRepealed | 1967 ⓘ |
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: Butler Act Description of subject: The Butler Act was a Tennessee state law enacted in 1925 that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools, becoming infamous as the focus of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Tennessee Butler Act
this entity surface form:
Butler Act left in force