Justices to Rule on ‘Creation Science’ Law
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, acting on the 61st anniversary of the arrest of John Scopes for teaching evolution, agreed today to decide whether public schools can be forced to give equal time to the teaching of “creation science.”
The court will hear arguments next term in the case brought by the state of Louisiana seeking review of a ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law violated the Constitution’s requirement of separation of church and state.
The Louisiana law, enacted in 1981, required the public schools to give balanced treatment to creation science and to evolution science. Under the law, a school can elect to teach neither, but if it teaches one it must teach the other.
The state claimed the act was merely designed to “protect academic freedom,” but the appeals court, in July, 1985, discounted that defense and said the act has a clear religious purpose, not a secular purpose.
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