Arkansas to let creation ruling stand

Press, 9 February 1982, Page 9

Arkansas to let creation ruling stand

NZPA-Reuter Little Rock, Arkansas Americas creationist movement suffered a serious set-back late last week when Arkansas announced it would not try to reverse a court ruling against a law forcing the state's schools to teach biblical theories as a science. The surprise decision, which could affect the prospects of similar bills pending in at least 16 other states, came after a celebrated nine-day trial last December. An appeal had been considered automatic. Judge William Overton had ruled that the law — forcing schools teaching evolution also to teach the theory that a supernatural being created life thousands of years ago — violated the constitutional ban on religious instruction in tax-sup-ported schools. The decision not to appeal was made personally by the Arkansas Attorney-General (Mr Steve Clark), who had been bitterly attacked by the creationist movement for what it called his inadequate defence of the law during the trial. The American Civil Liberties Union, supported vigo-

rously by the American scientific community, had challenged the law in a major test case. It was seen as a replay of the 1925 so-called monkey trial in which a biology teacher, John Scopes, was convicted under a Tennessee law forbidding teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Last Friday was Mr Clark’s deadline for appeal. But, he announced, he considered the religious nature of the wording of the law created an insurmountable problem for an appeal. “My opinion is that the state could not win an appeal,” he said. Reaction from creationists, a fast-growing force of the American far Right and composed largely of religious fundamentalists, was divided. Jim Holstead, a young Arkansas state senator who pushed through the law, said: “I just hate to hear that. I thought we could win on appeal.” But Roy McLaughlin, state chairman of the Moral Majority, a prominent force of the American religious far Right, told reporters ..that given Mr Clark’s handling of the case he thought the decision was correct.