Epperson v. Arkansas

Epperson v. Arkansas
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 16, 1968 Decided November 12, 1968
Full case name	Susan Epperson, et al. v. Arkansas
Citations	393 U.S. 97 (more) 89 S. Ct. 266; 21 L. Ed. 2d 228; 1968 U.S. LEXIS 328
Case history
Prior	Appeal from the Supreme Court of Arkansas
Subsequent	None
Holding
States may not require curricula to align with the views of any particular religion.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Abe Fortas · Thurgood Marshall
Case opinions
Majority	Fortas, joined by Warren, Douglas, Brennan, White, Marshall
Concurrence	Black
Concurrence	Harlan
Concurrence	Stewart
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I, amend. XIV

Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968), was a unanimous landmark United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in the public schools.^[1] The Court held that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a state from requiring, in the words of the majority opinion, "that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma." The Supreme Court declared the Arkansas statute unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. After this decision, some jurisdictions passed laws that required the teaching of creation science alongside evolution when evolution was taught. The Court also ruled these laws were unconstitutional in the 1987 case, Edwards v. Aguillard.^[2]