State v. Epperson

STATE of Arkansas, Appellant, v. Susan EPPERSON and H. H. Blanchard, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided June 5, 1967.

Rehearing Denied July 26, 1967.

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1967-06-05

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1967-06-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 33 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2014 · most notably Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), Jegley v. Picado (2002)

6 federal appellate · 22 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Bruce Bennett, Atty. Gen., Fletcher Jackson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellant.

¶2Warren & Bullion, Little Rock, for appellees.

¶3PER CURIAM.

¶4Upon the principal issue, that of constitutionality, the court holds that Initiated Measure No. 1 of 1928, Ark.Stat.Ann. § 80-1627 and § 80-1628 (Repl.1960), is a valid exercise of the state's power to specify the curriculum in its public schools. The court expresses no opinion on the question whether the Act prohibits any explanation of the theory of evolution or merely prohibits teaching that the theory is true; the answer not being necessary to a decision in the case, and the issue not having been raised.

¶5The decree is reversed and the cause dismissed.

¶6WARD, J., concurs.

¶7BROWN, J., dissents.

¶8WARD, Justice.

¶9I agree with the first sentence in the majority opinion.

¶10To my mind, the rest of the opinion beclouds the clear announcement made in the first sentence.