State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes
E31044
State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes was a landmark 1925 American legal case in which a high school teacher was tried for teaching evolution, symbolizing the national conflict between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes canonical | 9 |
| 1925 Scopes Trial | 4 |
| Scopes v. State of Tennessee | 3 |
| 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial | 2 |
| John Thomas Scopes v. The State | 1 |
| Scopes v. State (Scopes Monkey Trial) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T243009 — 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: State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Context triple: [Scopes "Monkey" Trial, hasAlternativeName, State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes]
-
A.
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County was a landmark civil rights case challenging racial segregation in Virginia’s public schools that became one of the five cases consolidated into the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision.
-
B.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
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C.
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.
-
D.
Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan
Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan is a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a state-supported women-only nursing school policy as unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause.
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E.
Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed the right to court-appointed counsel for criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney.
- 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: State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Target entity description: State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes was a landmark 1925 American legal case in which a high school teacher was tried for teaching evolution, symbolizing the national conflict between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
-
A.
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County was a landmark civil rights case challenging racial segregation in Virginia’s public schools that became one of the five cases consolidated into the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision.
-
B.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan
Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan is a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a state-supported women-only nursing school policy as unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause.
-
E.
Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed the right to court-appointed counsel for criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States state court case
ⓘ
court case ⓘ criminal trial ⓘ landmark legal case ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Scopes "Monkey" Trial
ⓘ
surface form:
Scopes Monkey Trial
Scopes "Monkey" Trial ⓘ
surface form:
Scopes Trial
|
| appealCourt | Tennessee Supreme Court ⓘ |
| appealDate | 1927 ⓘ |
| appealOutcome | conviction overturned on technicality ⓘ |
| broadcast | one of the first U.S. trials broadcast on radio ⓘ |
| charge | teaching evolution in a public school ⓘ |
| city | Dayton ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| county | Rhea County ⓘ |
| court | Criminal Court of Tennessee ⓘ |
| culturalImpact | inspired the play Inherit the Wind ⓘ |
| defendant |
John T. Scopes
ⓘ
surface form:
John Thomas Scopes
|
| defendantOccupation |
high school teacher
ⓘ
science teacher ⓘ |
| defenseAttorney |
Arthur Garfield Hays
ⓘ
Dudley Field Malone ⓘ |
| endDate | 1925-07-21 ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
influenced later debates over teaching evolution in U.S. public schools
ⓘ
symbolized national conflict between modern science and religious fundamentalism ⓘ |
| holding | Butler Act constitutional but conviction reversed due to improper fine setting ⓘ |
| issue |
conflict between modern science and religious fundamentalism
ⓘ
legality of teaching human evolution in public schools ⓘ |
| judge | John T. Raulston ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Tennessee ⓘ |
| leadDefenseAttorney | Clarence Darrow ⓘ |
| legalBasis | Butler Act ⓘ |
| location | Dayton, Tennessee ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive national press coverage ⓘ |
| participant | American Civil Liberties Union ⓘ |
| plaintiff |
Tennessee
ⓘ
surface form:
State of Tennessee
|
| prosecutor | William Jennings Bryan ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Edwards v. Aguillard
ⓘ
Everson v. Board of Education ⓘ
surface form:
Epperson v. Arkansas
|
| relatedLegislation | laws restricting the teaching of evolution in the United States ⓘ |
| sentence | fine of 100 US dollars ⓘ |
| sponsorOfDefense | American Civil Liberties Union ⓘ |
| startDate | 1925-07-10 ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
academic freedom
ⓘ
church–state relations ⓘ creationism ⓘ evolution ⓘ |
| verdict | guilty ⓘ |
| year | 1925 ⓘ |
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: State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Description of subject: State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes was a landmark 1925 American legal case in which a high school teacher was tried for teaching evolution, symbolizing the national conflict between modern science and religious fundamentalism.
Referenced by (20)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Scopes v. State of Tennessee
this entity surface form:
Scopes v. State of Tennessee
this entity surface form:
Scopes v. State of Tennessee
subject surface form:
Inherit the Wind
this entity surface form:
1925 Scopes Trial
subject surface form:
Inherit the Wind (1960 film)
this entity surface form:
1925 Scopes Trial
subject surface form:
Rhea County
this entity surface form:
1925 Scopes Trial
subject surface form:
Rhea County
this entity surface form:
1925 Scopes Monkey Trial
this entity surface form:
John Thomas Scopes v. The State
this entity surface form:
Scopes v. State (Scopes Monkey Trial)
this entity surface form:
1925 Scopes Trial
this entity surface form:
1925 Scopes Monkey Trial