John scopes purposefully broke the law by teaching evolutionwhat was his goal?

Answer 1

Tennessee had passed a law in 1925 (the Butler Act) that forbade the teaching of any theory that would contradict the Christian Bible. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) convinced John Scopes (a high school science teacher) to intentionally break the law and risk arrest. He was, indeed, arrested (as he and the ACLU planned). He was defended by Clarence Darrow, while the state of Tennessee hired William Jennings Bryan, who had run for President three times. Both lawyers were famous and the trial was closely watched nationally. The trial was called the "Monkey Trial" since Scopes was teaching evolution (i.e. humans evolved from monkeys.) Darrow conceded that John Scopes broke the law, but argued the law was unconstitutional. He wanted to test the law on appeal, not convince the jury that Scopes didn't break it. Most observers believed Darrow did a better job than Bryan, as Darrow was able to make Bryan seem parochial and narrow-minded. As expected, Bryan won at trial, but on appeal the judgment was reversed on a technicality and the case was never retried. Bryan died a few days after the original verdict was handed down. The Butler Act remained on the books until the Warren Court struck it down in the 1960s for violating the Free Speech protection in the 1st Amendment.