Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968)

"The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between
religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion."

Susan Epperson at time of trial and
with John Scopes on magazine cover

Arkansas. 1965. Little Rock's Central High gets their new science texts. A tenth grade biology teacher, Susan Epperson, realizes if she uses the book, she could lose her job. The chapter on the origin of man violates an old state law that prohibits teaching, quote, "the theory that mankind descended from a lower order of animals." Epperson wants that so-called 'anti-evolution' statute declared unconstitutional.

In 1968, a unanimous Supreme Court does just that. "Government in our democracy, state and national, must be neutral in matters of religious theory." Justice Fortas writes: "The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion."

For more...

Evoltion Revolution PBS

Significant Court Decisions Regarding Evolution and Creationism National Academy Press

Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science

Charles Darwin Online Literature Library

Complete text of The Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species

AMENDMENT 1 Freedom of Religion, Speech, and Assembly

Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [^].

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