Memories of The Monkey Trial

By Alain L. Sanders

Once again, science and religion collided last week. This time the battleground was the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Justices decreed that a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught along with evolution in the public schools was unconstitutional. The 7-to-2 decision, strongly bolstering prior rulings maintaining the wall separating church and state, was a major setback for Fundamentalist Christians.

In at least one respect, the case evoked memories of the famed 1925 "monkey trial" in Dayton, Tenn., where Science Teacher John Scopes was convicted of illegally teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. The current controversy involved another high school educator, Donald Aguillard of Lafayette, La., who along with colleagues and parents challenged Louisiana's 1981 Creationism Act. That law, which had never been implemented, sought to bar evolution from being taught in public schools unless it was accompanied by the teaching of "creation science." This is the belief that some 6,000 years ago the earth and all living things were suddenly created in a process similar to that detailed in Genesis. Aguillard successfully challenged the creationism statute in two lower federal courts and last week reaped his biggest victory yet.

Writing for the majority, Justice William Brennan declared that the Louisiana requirement ran afoul of the First Amendment's ban on laws "respecting an establishment of religion." He found that creation science "embodies the religious belief that a supernatural creator was responsible for the creation of humankind." Therefore, he concluded, the statute's mandate that it be taught "advances a religious doctrine" and "seeks to employ the symbolic and financial support of government to achieve a religious purpose."

Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, sharply dissented. The two latest Reagan appointees argued that the Louisiana law was a valid attempt to let students decide "for themselves, based upon a fair presentation of the scientific evidence, about the origin of life." They attacked the majority for believing that any government requirements restricting the teaching of evolution "must be a manifestation of Christian Fundamentalist repression." The dissenters said this majority "predisposition" was "created by the facts and the legend" of the Scopes case.

The ruling was praised by a wide range of educators, scientists, civil libertarians and religious groups. But Bruce Fein of the conservative Heritage Foundation declared, "The decision is a total assault on efforts to get anything related to religious precepts into public schools." The opinion will help lift the pressures on textbook publishers that have been pushed by Fundamentalists to de-emphasize the theory of evolution.

As the high court moved closer to its summer close, there was a flurry of other significant decisions. The Justices ruled 5 to 4 that because of its inflammatory nature, evidence of a murder's impact on the victim's family is not admissible at a death-sentencing hearing. The court unanimously struck down a Los Angeles International Airport regulation designed to protect harried air travelers from the entreaties of preachers and leafleteers. The Justices concluded that the rule banning all "First Amendment activities" was too broad, and left open the possibility that narrower restrictions might be acceptable.

With reporting by Anne Constable/Washington and Don Winbush/Atlanta