Wallace v. Jaffree
E195947
Establishment Clause case
First Amendment case
U.S. constitutional law case
United States Supreme Court case
Wallace v. Jaffree is a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down an Alabama law authorizing a moment of silence for prayer in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Wallace v. Jaffree canonical | 4 |
| Alabama public school prayer statutes | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1584825 — 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: Wallace v. Jaffree Context triple: [Lemon v. Kurtzman, relatedCase, Wallace v. Jaffree]
-
A.
Abington School District v. Schempp
Abington School District v. Schempp is a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that held mandatory Bible readings in public schools unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
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B.
Engel v. Vitale
Engel v. Vitale is a 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled state-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
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C.
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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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.
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.
- 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: Wallace v. Jaffree Target entity description: Wallace v. Jaffree is a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down an Alabama law authorizing a moment of silence for prayer in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause.
-
A.
Abington School District v. Schempp
Abington School District v. Schempp is a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that held mandatory Bible readings in public schools unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
-
B.
Engel v. Vitale
Engel v. Vitale is a 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled state-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
-
C.
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.
-
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.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Establishment Clause case
ⓘ
First Amendment case ⓘ U.S. constitutional law case ⓘ United States Supreme Court case ⓘ |
| arguedDate | December 4, 1984 ⓘ |
| citation | 472 U.S. 38 ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Establishment Clause
ⓘ
First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | June 4, 1985 ⓘ |
| dissentingJustices |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ Sandra Day O'Connor ⓘ
linked to:
Sandra Day O’Connor
Warren E. Burger ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| fullName | Wallace v. Jaffree ⓘ |
| holding | An Alabama statute authorizing a moment of silence for prayer or meditation in public schools violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment ⓘ |
| impact | limited states' ability to mandate or endorse school prayer ⓘ |
| issue | constitutionality of a state law authorizing a moment of silence for prayer in public schools ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| keyReasoning | The statute lacked a clearly secular purpose and was enacted to endorse religion ⓘ |
| language | English opinion ⓘ |
| lawChallenged | Alabama statute providing for a moment of silence for meditation or voluntary prayer in public schools ⓘ |
| legalTestApplied | Lemon test ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ⓘ |
| lowerCourtDisposition | affirmed ⓘ |
| majorityJustices |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ John Paul Stevens ⓘ Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ Sandra Day O'Connor ⓘ
linked to:
Sandra Day O’Connor
Thurgood Marshall ⓘ William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | John Paul Stevens ⓘ |
| page | 38 ⓘ |
| petitioner |
George C. Wallace, Governor of Alabama
ⓘ
linked to:
George Wallace
|
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent | Ishmael Jaffree ⓘ |
| shortDescription | U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down an Alabama moment-of-silence-for-prayer law as violating the Establishment Clause ⓘ |
| stateInvolved | Alabama ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
public education
ⓘ
religion in public schools ⓘ |
| topic |
moment of silence in public schools
ⓘ
school prayer ⓘ separation of church and state ⓘ |
| volume | 472 ⓘ |
| vote | 6–3 ⓘ |
| year | 1985 ⓘ |
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: Wallace v. Jaffree Description of subject: Wallace v. Jaffree is a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down an Alabama law authorizing a moment of silence for prayer in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Wallace v. Jaffree