Epperson v. Arkansas
E195060
Establishment Clause case
First Amendment case
United States Supreme Court case
education law case
science education case
Epperson v. Arkansas is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down an Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools, marking a major victory for the separation of church and state in education.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Epperson v. Arkansas canonical | 5 |
| Arkansas anti-evolution law | 1 |
| Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968) | 1 |
| Epperson v. State, 242 Ark. 922, 416 S.W.2d 322 (1967) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1716559 — 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: Epperson v. Arkansas Context triple: [creation–evolution controversy, hasHistoricalEvent, Epperson v. Arkansas]
-
A.
Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard is a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Louisiana law requiring the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause.
-
B.
Craig v. Boren
Craig v. Boren is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that established intermediate scrutiny as the standard for evaluating gender-based classifications under the Equal Protection Clause.
-
C.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited student First Amendment rights by allowing public school officials greater authority to regulate school-sponsored student speech, such as in school newspapers.
-
D.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was the school district authority that served as a central defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court desegregation cases following Brown v. Board of Education.
-
E.
Everson v. Board of Education
Everson v. Board of Education is a 1947 U.S. Supreme Court case that applied the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause to the states and articulated the modern “wall of separation between church and state” doctrine.
- 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: Epperson v. Arkansas Target entity description: Epperson v. Arkansas is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down an Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools, marking a major victory for the separation of church and state in education.
-
A.
Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard is a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Louisiana law requiring the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause.
-
B.
Craig v. Boren
Craig v. Boren is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case that established intermediate scrutiny as the standard for evaluating gender-based classifications under the Equal Protection Clause.
-
C.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier is a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case that limited student First Amendment rights by allowing public school officials greater authority to regulate school-sponsored student speech, such as in school newspapers.
-
D.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was the school district authority that served as a central defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court desegregation cases following Brown v. Board of Education.
-
E.
Everson v. Board of Education
Everson v. Board of Education is a 1947 U.S. Supreme Court case that applied the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause to the states and articulated the modern “wall of separation between church and state” doctrine.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (54)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Establishment Clause case
ⓘ
First Amendment case ⓘ United States Supreme Court case ⓘ education law case ⓘ science education case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
church–state separation
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ education law ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 1968-10-16 ⓘ |
| citation | 393 U.S. 97 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Hugo L. Black
ⓘ
Potter Stewart ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Establishment Clause
ⓘ
First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ
linked to:
Fourteenth Amendment
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1968-11-12 ⓘ |
| decisionType | unanimous decision ⓘ |
| fullName |
Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968)
ⓘ
linked to:
Epperson v. Arkansas
|
| holding |
An Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in public schools is unconstitutional
ⓘ
The Arkansas anti-evolution law violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ |
| impact |
limited the ability of states to ban the teaching of evolution
ⓘ
set precedent for later creationism and intelligent design cases ⓘ strengthened separation of church and state in public education ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Byron White
ⓘ
linked to:
Byron R. White
Earl Warren ⓘ John M. Harlan II ⓘ Thurgood Marshall ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ William O. Douglas ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Arkansas ⓘ |
| lawChallenged |
Arkansas anti-evolution law
ⓘ
linked to:
Epperson v. Arkansas
Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
constitutionality of a state law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools
ⓘ
violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Abe Fortas ⓘ |
| originatingCourt | Arkansas Supreme Court ⓘ |
| page | 97 ⓘ |
| petitioner | Susan Epperson ⓘ |
| priorHistory |
Epperson v. State, 242 Ark. 922, 416 S.W.2d 322 (1967)
ⓘ
linked to:
Epperson v. Arkansas
|
| relatedCase |
Edwards v. Aguillard
ⓘ
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District ⓘ Scopes v. State (Scopes Monkey Trial) ⓘ
linked to:
State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes
|
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent |
State of Arkansas
ⓘ
linked to:
Arkansas
|
| result | Arkansas anti-evolution statute struck down ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
relationship between religion and public education
ⓘ
science and religion in the classroom ⓘ teaching of evolution in public schools ⓘ |
| topic |
evolution in public schools
ⓘ
religion in public schools ⓘ |
| volume | 393 ⓘ |
| vote | 9-0 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1968 ⓘ |
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: Epperson v. Arkansas Description of subject: Epperson v. Arkansas is a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down an Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools, marking a major victory for the separation of church and state in education.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Epperson v. Arkansas
linked to: Epperson v. Arkansas
linked to: Epperson v. Arkansas