Hugo Black

“ In fact the Darwinian theory has not merely been criticized by religionists but by scientists, and perhaps no scientist would be willing to take an oath and swear that everything announced in the Darwinian theory is unquestionably true. The Court, it seems to me, makes a serious mistake in bypassing the plain, unconstitutional vagueness of this statute in order to reach out and decide this troublesome, to me, First Amendment question. ”

“ Unless this Court is prepared simply to write off as pure nonsense the views of those who consider evolution an anti-religious doctrine, then this issue presents problems under the Establishment Clause far more troublesome than are discussed in the Court's opinion. ”

“ State of Louisiana, 379 U.S. 559, 574, 85 S.Ct. 476, 485-486, 13 L.Ed.2d 487. I question whether it is absolutely certain, as the Court's opinion indicates, that ‘academic freedom’ permits a teacher to breach his contractual agreement to teach only the subjects designated by the school authorities who hired him. Certainly the Darwinian theory, precisely like the Genesis story of the creation of man, is not above challenge. ”

“ In the first place I find it difficult to agree with the Court's statement that ‘there can be no doubt that Arkansas has sought to prevent its teachers from discussing the theory of evolution because it is contrary to the belief of some that the Book of Genesis must be the exclusive source of doctrine as to the origin of man.’ It may be instead that the people's motive was merely that it would be best to remove this controversial*113 subject from its schools ”