Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
E67059
Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a state could not deny unemployment benefits to a worker who refused Sunday work for sincere religious reasons, even though he was not a member of an organized religion.
All labels observed (4)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T537175 — 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: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security Context triple: [Sherbert v. Verner, precedentFor, Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security]
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A.
Frohwerk v. United States
Frohwerk v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld a conviction for antiwar newspaper articles, reinforcing broad federal power to punish speech deemed obstructive to World War I military recruitment.
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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.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
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D.
Escobedo v. Illinois
Escobedo v. Illinois is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that expanded the Sixth Amendment right to counsel during police interrogations and helped lay the groundwork for the later Miranda warnings.
-
E.
Argersinger v. Hamlin
Argersinger v. Hamlin is a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the right to counsel to defendants in misdemeanor cases that may result in imprisonment.
- 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: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security Target entity description: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a state could not deny unemployment benefits to a worker who refused Sunday work for sincere religious reasons, even though he was not a member of an organized religion.
-
A.
Frohwerk v. United States
Frohwerk v. United States is a 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld a conviction for antiwar newspaper articles, reinforcing broad federal power to punish speech deemed obstructive to World War I military recruitment.
-
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.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
-
D.
Escobedo v. Illinois
Escobedo v. Illinois is a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that expanded the Sixth Amendment right to counsel during police interrogations and helped lay the groundwork for the later Miranda warnings.
-
E.
Argersinger v. Hamlin
Argersinger v. Hamlin is a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the right to counsel to defendants in misdemeanor cases that may result in imprisonment.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ free exercise of religion case ⓘ |
| appliedToStatesThrough |
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
linked to:
Fourteenth Amendment
|
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
employment law ⓘ unemployment compensation ⓘ |
| citation | 489 U.S. 829 ⓘ |
| citationStyle | Frazee v. Ill. Dep't of Emp't Sec., 489 U.S. 829 (1989) ⓘ |
| comparedWithCase | Employment Division v. Smith ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionCategory | religious liberty decision ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1989 ⓘ |
| decisionType | unanimous decision ⓘ |
| factSummary |
Illinois denied Frazee unemployment benefits on the ground that his refusal to work Sunday was not based on the tenets of an established church
ⓘ
William Frazee refused a temporary retail job because it required Sunday work, which conflicted with his sincere religious belief that Sunday is the Sabbath ⓘ |
| fullCaseName | William Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security ⓘ |
| holding |
A state may not deny unemployment benefits to a person who refuses Sunday work based on sincere religious beliefs solely because he is not a member of an organized religious denomination
ⓘ
Sincere religious beliefs are protected by the Free Exercise Clause even if they are not part of an organized religion ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Illinois ⓘ |
| languageOfOpinion | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
denial of unemployment benefits based on refusal to work on Sunday for religious reasons
ⓘ
scope of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment ⓘ |
| opinionOfTheCourtBy | Byron R. White ⓘ |
| page | 829 ⓘ |
| petitioner | William Frazee ⓘ |
| precededByCase |
Sherbert v. Verner
ⓘ
Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division ⓘ |
| precedentFor | protection of individual, non‑denominational religious beliefs in benefits cases ⓘ |
| relatedDoctrine |
Free Exercise Clause
ⓘ
religious exemptions from generally applicable laws ⓘ |
| remedy | case remanded for proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court's opinion ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent | Illinois Department of Employment Security ⓘ |
| result | denial of unemployment benefits was reversed ⓘ |
| ruleOfLaw | The Free Exercise Clause protects sincerely held religious beliefs regardless of membership in an organized religion ⓘ |
| stateParty |
State of Illinois
ⓘ
linked to:
Illinois
|
| subjectMatter | unemployment insurance benefits ⓘ |
| volume | 489 ⓘ |
| yearArgued | 1989 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 1989 ⓘ |
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: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security Description of subject: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a state could not deny unemployment benefits to a worker who refused Sunday work for sincere religious reasons, even though he was not a member of an organized religion.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
→
fullCaseName
→
William Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
ⓘ
linked to: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
→
citationStyle
→
Frazee v. Ill. Dep't of Emp't Sec., 489 U.S. 829 (1989)
ⓘ
linked to: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security
William Frazee
→
caseCitation
→
Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security, 489 U.S. 829 (1989)
ⓘ
linked to: Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security