@farmerman,
JTT, The Butler ACt was passed in 1922 just to forbid the teaching of evolution in Tenn. The SCopes trial was an agree upon "Test" of this act and was by total legal agreement. The fact that Scopes was only fined less than the minimum (he was fined 100$ which was reduced to 1$ after an appeal), after a state SUpreme Court decision, BUTLER was actually SOLIDIFIED for over 35more years. It wasnt until 1967
When Gary SCott,(A REAL BIOLOGY TEACHER), was dismissed for teaching evolution (remember that evolution WAS NOT taught in Tenn public schools for the entire interim period) The dismissed teacher sued for violation of his civil rights under Amendment 1 and free speech. and WON and was restated, He continued his fight against Butler and THAT WAS THE REAL KILLER for farmer Butler's ACT.
There should actually be a HISTORY CHANNEL (or similar)followup on SCopes/SCOTT to let everyone understand that SCopes not only .lost the case, he lost the cause for an additional 35 years, and it was GARY SCOTT who was the real hero for science.
Heres a blurb I got from Wiki on the Butler act after Scopes
BUTLER ACT (from Wikipedia)
The Butler Act was a 1925 Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers from denying the Biblical account of man’s origin. It was enacted as Tennessee Code Annotated Title 49 (Education) Section 1922 . The law also prevented the teaching of the evolution of man from what it referred to as lower orders of animals in place of the Biblical account.
Provisions of the law
The law, "AN ACT prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof" (Tenn. HB 185, 1925) specifically provided:
"That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."[1]
It additionally outlined that an offending teacher would be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined between $100 and $500 for each offense.
By the terms of the statute, it could be argued, it was not illegal to teach that apes descended from protozoa, to teach the mechanisms of variation and natural selection, or to teach the prevailing scientific theories of geology or the age of the Earth. It did not even require that the Genesis story be taught. It prohibited only the teaching that man evolved, or any other theory denying that man was created by God as recorded in Genesis. However the author of the law, a Tennessee farmer named John Washington Butler, specifically intended that it would prohibit the teaching of evolution. He later was reported to have said, "No, I didn't know anything about evolution when I introduced it. I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense." After reading copies of William Jennings Bryan's lecture "Is the Bible True?" as well as Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, Butler decided evolution was dangerous.
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Challenges
The law was challenged by the ACLU in the famed Scopes Trial, in which John Scopes, a high school sports coach who occasionally acted as a substitute teacher, agreed to be arrested on a charge of having taught evolution, and was nominally served a warrant on May 5, 1925. Scopes was indicted on May 25 and ultimately convicted; on appeal the Tennessee Supreme Court found the law to be constitutional under the Tennessee State Constitution, because:
We are not able to see how the prohibition of teaching the theory that man has descended from a lower order of animals gives preference to any religious establishment or mode of worship. So far as we know, there is no religious establishment or organized body that has in its creed or confession of faith any article denying or affirming such a theory. — Scopes v. State 289 S.W. 363, 367 (Tenn. 1927)
Despite this decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the conviction on a technicality (that the jury should have fixed the amount of the fine), and the case was not retried. During the trial, Butler told reporters: "I never had any idea my bill would make a fuss. I just thought it would become a law, and that everybody would abide by it and that we wouldn't hear any more of evolution in Tennessee."
The law remained on the books until 1967, when teacher Gary L. Scott of Jacksboro TN, dismissed for violation of the act, sued for reinstatement, citing his First Amendment right to free speech. Although his termination was rescinded, Scott continued his fight with a class action lawsuit in the Nashville Federal District Court, seeking a permanent injunction against enforcement of that law. Within three days of his filing suit, a bill for repeal of the Butler Act had passed both houses of the Tennessee legislature, signed into law May 18 by Governor Buford Ellington.[2]
pes
