March 13, 1925: Tennessee passes law that leads to Scopes Monkey Trial

Saturday 13 March 2010

On March 13, 1925, Tennessee passed the Butler Act, a law forbidding the teaching of ''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.'' The law was tested when high school teacher John Scopes was charged with teaching evolution. The high-profile trial pitted two of America's greatest legal minds against each other: William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. After eight days of trial, the jury found Scopes guilty after deliberating for only nine minutes. The conviction was subsequently set aside on appeal. Tennessee repealed the Butler Act in 1967, and in 1968 the Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that state laws banning the teaching of evolution violate the separation of church of state because their primary purpose is religious.