Epperson v. Arkansas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Epperson v. Arkansas | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Supreme Court of the United States |
||||||
| Argued October 16, 1968 Decided November 12, 1968 |
||||||
| Full case name | Susan Epperson, et al. v. Arkansas | |||||
| Citations | 393 U.S. 97 (more) 89 S. Ct. 266; 21 L. Ed. 2d 228; 1968 U.S. LEXIS 328 |
|||||
| Prior history | Appeal from the Supreme Court of Arkansas | |||||
| Subsequent history | None | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| States may not require curricula to align with the views of any particular religion. | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
|
||||||
| Case opinions | ||||||
| Majority | Fortas, joined by Warren, Douglas, Brennan, White, Marshall | |||||
| Concurrence | Black | |||||
| Concurrence | Harlan | |||||
| Concurrence | Stewart | |||||
| Laws applied | ||||||
| U.S. Const. amend. I | ||||||
Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968), was a United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute that prohibited the teaching of evolution in the public schools. The Court held that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a state from requiring, in the words of the majority opinion, "that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma." The Supreme Court declared the Arkansas statute unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. After this decision, some jurisdictions passed laws that required the teaching of creation science. These were also ruled unconstitutional by the Court in the 1987 case Edwards v. Aguillard.
In his concurrence, Justice Black asserted that it was not clear that the case presented a justiciable case or controversy. Justice Black noted that Epperson had brought this declaratory judgment action despite the fact that the State had never made any attempt to enforce the Act. Justice Black also noted that the case could be moot and therefore non-justiciable because it had not been established that Epperson was still teaching in the school district:
But whether this Arkansas teacher is still a teacher, fearful of punishment under the Act, we do not know. It may be, as has been published in the daily press, that she has long since given up her job as a teacher and moved to a distant city, thereby escaping the dangers she had imagined might befall her under this lifeless Arkansas Act.
Contents |
[edit] Consequences
The decision in Epperson was the first in a series of legal setbacks to creationists wanting to promote creationism through America's public schools. These include:
- Wright v. Houston Independent School District (1972)
- Willoughby v. Stever (1973)
- Daniel v. Waters (1975)
- Hendren v. Campbell (1977)
- Segraves v. California (1981)
- McLean v. Arkansas (1982)
- Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)
- Webster v. New Lenox School District (1990)
- Bishop v. Aronov (1991)
- Peloza v. Capistrano School District (1994)
- Hellend v. South Bend Community School Corporation (1996)
- Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education (1997)
- Edwards v. California University of Pennsylvania (1998)
- LeVake v. Independent School District 656 (2000)
- Selman v. Cobb County School District (2005)
- Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005)
[edit] Creationism in Arkansas, and "equal time"/"balance treatment" acts
Arkansas's equal time act was struck down in McLean v. Arkansas but it wasn't until 1987 that the Supreme Court ruled the teaching of "creation science" illegal in Edwards v. Aguillard.
[edit] Related cases
- Scopes Trial - 1925
- Daniel v. Waters - 1975
- Hendren v. Campbell - 1977
- McLean v. Arkansas - 1982
- Edwards v. Aguillard - 1987
- Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District - 2005
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Case Brief at Lawnix.com
- Creationism/ID: A Short Legal History
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture entry on Epperson v. Arkansas
- Epperson v. Arkansas from Cornell Law Archive
- Epperson v. Arkansas from talkorgins.org
- Epperson v. Arkansas on Findlaw
- The Biology Teacher Next Door: Susan Epperson at Evolution 2004