Significance: This ruling established that a state could not prohibit the teaching of evolution simply to satisfy the beliefs of religious groups. The decision reinforced the Supreme Court’s commitment to the separation of church and state.
Background: Susan Epperson, a teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, sued the school system to keep it from firing her if she taught the theory of evolution, which was included as a chapter in the system’s new biology textbook. At that time, Arkansas had an antievolution statute that made teaching evolution in state-supported schools a misdemeanor, punishable by dismissing the offending teacher. Epperson argued that the law violated the separation of church and state as presented in the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Decision: This case was argued on October 16, 1968, and decided on November 12, 1968, by a vote of 9 to 0. Justice Abe Fortas spoke for the unanimous Court, which determined that the Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools was passed purely for religious reasons—because it conflicted with the story of creation in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Thus, the Arkansas law did not protect the separation of church and state, and the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional.
Excerpt from the Opinion of the Court: “Arkansas’ law cannot be defended as an act of religious neutrality. Arkansas did not seek to excise [remove] from the curricula of its schools and universities all discussion of the origin of man. The law’s effort was confined to an attempt to blot out a particular theory because of its supposed conflict with the Biblical account, literally read. Plainly, the law is contrary to the mandate of the First, and in violation of the Fourteenth, Amendment to the Constitution.”
