Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser
E179619
Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools may discipline students for lewd or indecent speech, distinguishing such expression from the protected political speech recognized in Tinker.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser canonical | 5 |
| Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1567718 — 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: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser Context triple: [Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, relatedCase, Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser]
-
A.
Lee v. Weisman
Lee v. Weisman is a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held clergy-led prayer at public school graduation ceremonies unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause.
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B.
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case that established students do not lose their First Amendment free speech rights at school, so long as their expression does not substantially disrupt the educational environment.
-
C.
Grove City College v. Bell
Grove City College v. Bell is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that significantly narrowed the scope of Title IX’s application to only those specific programs directly receiving federal funds, prompting later legislative action to restore broader coverage.
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D.
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Lemon v. Kurtzman is a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "Lemon test" for determining whether government actions violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
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E.
Gratz v. Bollinger
Gratz v. Bollinger is a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the University of Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy as violating the Equal Protection Clause by awarding automatic points based on race.
- 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: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser Target entity description: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools may discipline students for lewd or indecent speech, distinguishing such expression from the protected political speech recognized in Tinker.
-
A.
Lee v. Weisman
Lee v. Weisman is a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held clergy-led prayer at public school graduation ceremonies unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause.
-
B.
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case that established students do not lose their First Amendment free speech rights at school, so long as their expression does not substantially disrupt the educational environment.
-
C.
Grove City College v. Bell
Grove City College v. Bell is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that significantly narrowed the scope of Title IX’s application to only those specific programs directly receiving federal funds, prompting later legislative action to restore broader coverage.
-
D.
Lemon v. Kurtzman
Lemon v. Kurtzman is a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "Lemon test" for determining whether government actions violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
-
E.
Gratz v. Bollinger
Gratz v. Bollinger is a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the University of Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy as violating the Equal Protection Clause by awarding automatic points based on race.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
landmark student speech case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
First Amendment jurisprudence
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ education law ⓘ |
| citation | 478 U.S. 675 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Harry A. Blackmun
ⓘ
William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ
linked to:
Fourteenth Amendment
|
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1986-07-07 ⓘ |
| decisionType | reversal of lower court judgment ⓘ |
| dissentBy | Thurgood Marshall ⓘ |
| distinguishedFrom | Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 84-1667 ⓘ |
| effectOnLaw | Narrowed the scope of student speech protection recognized in Tinker for lewd or indecent expression. ⓘ |
| factPattern | Discipline of a high school student for delivering a sexually suggestive speech at a school assembly. ⓘ |
| holding |
Public schools may discipline students for lewd, indecent, or plainly offensive speech at school-sponsored events.
ⓘ
Student lewd or indecent speech is not entitled to the same level of First Amendment protection as political speech in schools. ⓘ The First Amendment does not prevent school officials from sanctioning a student for giving a sexually suggestive speech at a school assembly. ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| languageOfOpinion | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
First Amendment freedom of speech in public schools
ⓘ
student discipline for lewd or indecent speech ⓘ |
| locationOfFacts | Bethel High School, Pierce County, Washington ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Antonin Scalia
ⓘ
Byron R. White ⓘ Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ Sandra Day O'Connor ⓘ
linked to:
Sandra Day O’Connor
Warren E. Burger ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Warren E. Burger ⓘ |
| petitioner | Bethel School District No. 403 ⓘ |
| principle |
Schools may prohibit the use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse by students.
ⓘ
The constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings. ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
ⓘ
Morse v. Frederick ⓘ Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District ⓘ |
| respondent | Matthew N. Fraser ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
public school discipline
ⓘ
student speech ⓘ |
| yearArgued | 1986 ⓘ |
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: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser Description of subject: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser is a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case that held public schools may discipline students for lewd or indecent speech, distinguishing such expression from the protected political speech recognized in Tinker.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
→
relatedCase
→
Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser
ⓘ
Bethel High School, Pierce County, Washington
→
notableCourtCase
→
Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser
ⓘ
Matthew N. Fraser
→
relatedDecision
→
Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986)
ⓘ
linked to: Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser