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Epperson V. Arkansas: Facts of The Case

A public school teacher sued the state of Arkansas after it passed a law prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in public schools. The trial court found the law violated free speech rights but the state supreme court reversed. The US Supreme Court ruled the law violated the Establishment Clause by advancing a particular religious viewpoint. The Court found that prohibiting teaching evolution due solely to objections from fundamentalist Christians amounted to unconstitutional establishment of religion.

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Janelle Gilbert
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28 views1 page

Epperson V. Arkansas: Facts of The Case

A public school teacher sued the state of Arkansas after it passed a law prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in public schools. The trial court found the law violated free speech rights but the state supreme court reversed. The US Supreme Court ruled the law violated the Establishment Clause by advancing a particular religious viewpoint. The Court found that prohibiting teaching evolution due solely to objections from fundamentalist Christians amounted to unconstitutional establishment of religion.

Uploaded by

Janelle Gilbert
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EPPERSON v.

ARKANSAS

Facts of the Case


The Arkansas legislature passed a law prohibiting teachers in public or state- supported schools from teaching, or using textbooks
that teach, human evolution. Epperson, a public school teacher, sued, claiming the law violated her First Amendment right to free
speech as well as the Establishment Clause. The State Chancery Court ruled that it violated his free speech rights; the State
Supreme Court reversed.
Question
Does a law forbidding the teaching of evolution violate either the free speech rights of teachers or the Establishment clause of the
First Amendment?
Conclusion
Yes. Seven members of the Court held that the statute violated the Establishment clause. Writing for the Court, Justice Abe Fortas
stated that the law had been based solely on the beliefs of fundamentalist Christians, who felt that evolutionary theories directly
contradicted the biblical account of Creation. This use of state power to prohibit the teaching of material objectionable to a particular
sect ammounted to an unconstitutional Establishment of religion. Justice Fortas wrote, "The State's undoubted right to prescribe the
curriculum for its public schools does not carry with it the right to prohibit, on pain of criminal penalty, the teaching of a scientific
theory or doctrine where that prohibition is based upon reasons that violate the First Amendment." The two other members of the
Court concurred in the result, writing that it violated either the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment (because it was
unconstitutionally vague) or the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment.

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