asked 231k views
2 votes
Did the Louisiana law, which mandated the teaching of "creation science" along with the theory of evolution, violate the Establishment Clause?

asked
User Joland
by
8.1k points

1 Answer

1 vote

Final answer:

The Louisiana law mandating the teaching of "creation science" along with the theory of evolution was ruled to violate the Establishment Clause by the Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard, using precedents such as Lemon v. Kurtzman and the case Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Louisiana law that mandated the teaching of "creation science" alongside the theory of evolution did indeed violate the Establishment Clause. This was conclusively determined in the case of Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987), where the United States Supreme Court held that teaching creationism in public schools is unconstitutional.

The Court reasoned that the law did not have a clear secular purpose, advanced a particular religious belief, and resulted in an excessive entanglement of government with religion, thus failing the three-pronged test established in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971).

Furthermore, in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005), it was determined that teaching intelligent design, which is closely associated with creationism, in public school biology classes also violates the Establishment Clause on similar grounds.

answered
User Mzgajner
by
9.0k points