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SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
393 U.S. 97
Epperson v. Arkansas
No. 7 Argued: October 16, 1968 --- Decided: November 12, 1968
Appellant Epperson, an Arkansas public school teacher, brought this
action for
declaratory and injunctive relief challenging the constitutionality
of Arkansas'
"anti-evolution" statute. That statute makes it unlawful for a
teacher in any
state supported school or university to teach or to use a textbook
that teaches
"that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animals."
The State
Chancery Court held the statute an abridgment of free speech
violating the First
and Fourteenth Amendments. The State Supreme Court, expressing no
opinion as to
whether the statute prohibits "explanation" of the theory or only
teaching that
the theory is true, reversed the Chancery Court. In a two-sentence
opinion, it
sustained the statute as within the State's power to specify the
public school
curriculum.
Held: The statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces
the First
Amendment's prohibition of state laws respecting an establishment of
religion.
Pp. 102-109.
(a) The Court does not decide whether the statute is
unconstitutionally vague,
since, whether it is construed to prohibit explaining the Darwinian
theory or
teaching that it is true, the law conflicts with the Establishment
Clause. Pp.
102-103.
(b) The sole reason for the Arkansas law is that a particular
religious group
considers the evolution theory to conflict with the account of the
origin of man
set forth in the Book of Genesis. Pp. 103, 107-109.
(c) The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between
religion and
religion, and between religion and nonreligion. Pp. 103-107.
(d) A State's right to prescribe the public school curriculum does
not include
the right to prohibit teaching a scientific theory or doctrine for
reasons that
run counter to the principles of the First Amendment. P. 107.
(e) The Arkansas law is not a manifestation of religious neutrality.
P. 109.
242 Ark. 922, 416 S.W.2d 322, reversed. [p98]
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