Reasoning of the court

Reasoning of the court.

The case was presided over by Judge Fortas, Judge Black, Judge Harlan, and Judge Stewart. The whole court seemed to be in agreement with each other on this case. The amendment to the law in Arkansas stated that any instructor who taught evolution science would be terminated from their position and prosecuted under Arkansas law. The court noted that this Amendment included the prohibitions upon state interference with freedom of speech and thought which are found in the First Amendment. The court found the amendment in Arkansas hindered the quest for knowledge, restricted the freedom to learn, and restrained the freedom to teach. These basic rights are all covered in the first amendment. When the court saw it from this point of view, the Arkansas amendment “was an unconstitutional and void restraint upon the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution.” The court didn’t claim that the theory of evolution was true, they just didn’t believe that teaching it should be an illegal thing to do. To the courts agreement, Justice black stated, "A teacher cannot know whether he is forbidden to mention Darwin's theory, at all or only free to discuss it as long as he refrains from contending that it is true. It is an established rule that a statute which leaves an ordinary man so doubtful about it’s meaning that he cannot know when he has violated it denies him the first essential of due process.”


http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/Epperso.htm