Abe Fortas

“ Perhaps the sensational publicity attendant upon the Scopes trial induced Arkansas to adopt less explicit language. [18] It eliminated Tennessee's reference to ‘the story of the Divine Creation of man’ as taught in the Bible, but there is no doubt that the motivation for the law was the same: to suppress the teaching of a theory which, it was thought, ‘denied’ the divine creation of man.
Arkansas' law cannot be defended as an act of religious neutrality. Arkansas did not seek to excise from the curricula of its schools and universities all discussion of the origin of man. ”

“ 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. It is much too late to argue that the State may impose upon the teachers in its schools any conditions that it chooses, however restrictive they may be of constitutional guarantees. ”

“ The Arkansas law makes it unlawful for a teacher in any state-supported school or university ‘to teach the [p99] 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. ”

“ They are rooted in the foundation soil of our Nation. They are fundamental to freedom.
Government in our democracy, state and national, must be neutral in matters of religious theory, doctrine, [p104] and practice. It may not be hostile to any religion or to the advocacy of noreligion; and it may not aid, foster, or promote one religion or religious theory against another or even against the militant opposite. The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion. ”

“ This has been the interpretation of the great First Amendment which this Court has applied in the many and subtle problems which the ferment of our national life has presented for decision within the Amendment's broad command.
Judicial interposition in the operation of the public school system of the Nation raises problems requiring care and restraint. ”

“ I. 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. [1] The constitutionality of the Tennessee law was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court in the celebrated Scopes case in 1927. ”

“ J. Scopes & J. Presley, Center of the Storm 45-53 (1967) .↑ The following advertisement is typical of the public appeal which was used in the campaign to secure adoption of the statute:‘THE BIBLE OR ATHEISM, WHICH?‘All atheists favor evolution. If you agree with atheism vote against Act No. 1. If you agree with the Bible vote for Act No. 1. * * * Shall conscientious church members be forced to pay taxes to support teachers to teach evolution which will undermine the faith of their children? The Gazette said Russian Bolshevists laughed at Tennessee. True, and that sort will laugh at Arkansas. ”