Today in Legal History: Scopes Trial Began July 10, 1925

Often considered one of the most famous American court trials, arguments in the case of State of Tennessee v. John T. Scopes began in Dayton, Tennessee on July 10, 1925. The case, which began to be referred to as "The Scopes Trial" or the "Monkey Trial", involved the prosecution of high school teacher John Scopes for violation of a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolutionary biology in the state's public schools. The trial involved renowned civil rights attorney Clarence Darrow, representing Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution.

The trial was extensively covered in the press at the time, and while Scopes was ultimately convicted of violating the Tennessee law, the case placed a national spotlight on the issue of creationism and evolution in education. The legal principles at the center of the Scopes Trial have remained hotly contested in the many decades since they were argued at Dayton. Eighty years later, the 2005 case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005), involved a challenge to public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design. The court in Kitzmiller ultimately held that the policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The Law Library has several titles in its collection which focus on the Scopes Trial and the Kitzmiller case. A display is currently being featured which highlights these resources, including:

Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes / John T. Scopes and James Presley

Bryan and Darrow at Dayton: The Record and Documents of the "Bible-Evolution Trial"/ Leslie H. Allen, editor

In the Interest of Justice: Great Opening and Closing Arguments of the Last 100 Years / Joel J. Seidemann (Chapter 9 focuses on the arguments in the Scopes Trial)

Law, Darwinism & Public Education: The Establishment Clause and the Challenge of Intelligent Design / Francis J. Beckwith

The Devil in Dover: An Insider’s Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-Town America / Lauri Lebo

40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania / Matthew Chapman