Supreme Court of the United States / October Term 1984

Bennett, Secretary of Education v. Kentucky Department of Education

Decided March 19, 1985. Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 83-1798 · 470 U.S. 656 (1985) · Cited 157 times

Holding

The Secretary properly determined that Kentucky violated its assurances of compliance with Title I requirements by approving the "readiness classes" and thereby misused Title I funds.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1985). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).