Epperson v. Arkansas

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Epperson v. Arkansas
Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg
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
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
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] Background

This appeal challenges the constitutionality of the 'anti-evolution' statute which the State of Arkansas adopted in 1928 to prohibit the teaching in its public schools and universities of the theory that man evolved from other species of life. The statute was a product of the upsurge of 'fundamentalist' religious fervor of the twenties. The Arkansas statute was an adaption of the famous Tennessee 'monkey law' which that State adopted in 1925. The constitutionality of the Tennessee law was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court in the celebrated Scopes case in 1927.

The Arkansas law makes it unlawful for a teacher in any state-supported school or university 'to teach the theory or doctrine that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animals,' or 'to adopt or use in any such institution a textbook that teaches' this theory. Violation is a misdemeanor and subjects the violator to dismissal from his position.

The present case concerns the teaching of biology in a high school in Little Rock. According to the testimony, until the events here in litigation, the official textbook furnished for the high school biology course did not have a section on the Darwinian Theory. Then, for the academic year 1965--1966, the school administration, on recommendation of the teachers of biology in the school system, adopted and prescribed a textbook which contained a chapter setting forth 'the theory about the origin * * * of man from a lower form of animal.'

Susan Epperson, a young woman who graduated from Arkansas' school system and then obtained her master's degree in zoology at the University of Illinois, was employed by the Little Rock school system in the fall of 1964 to teach 10th grade biology at Central High School. At the start of the next academic year, 1965, she was confronted by the new textbook (which one surmises from the record was not unwelcome to her). She faced at least a literal dilemma because she was supposed to use the new textbook for classroom instruction and presumably to teach the statutorily condemned chapter; but to do so would be a criminal offense and subject her to dismissal.

She instituted the present action in the Chancery Court of the State, seeking a declaration that the Arkansas statute is void and enjoining the State and the defendant officials of the Little Rock school system from dismissing her for violation of the statute's provisions. H. H. Blanchard, a parent of children attending the public schools, intervened in support of the action.

The Chancery Court, in an opinion by Chancellor Murray O. Reed, held that the statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court noted that this Amendment encompasses the prohibitions upon state interference with freedom of speech and thought which are contained in the First Amendment. Accordingly, it held that the challenged statute is unconstitutional because, in violation of the First Amendment, it 'tends to hinder the quest for knowledge, restrict the freedom to learn, and restrain the freedom to teach.' In this perspective, the Act, it held, was an unconstitutional and void restraint upon the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution.

[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:

[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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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