Monkey Business
By Lloyd E. Fisher, Jr.
Litigation concerning religious symbols on public property
and teaching creationism in schools are only the latest cases
in the history of government-church conflicts. The State of
Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes is one of the most noted
cases.
In 1925, Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which prohibited
the teaching of evolution in public schools. The ACLU
offered to defend anyone who was charged under the law.
John Thomas Scopes, a young teacher in Dayton, Tennessee,
was charged and the resulting trial was a dramatic spectacle
that drew national interest.
A local Baptist preacher contacted William Jennings Bryan
to become part of the prosecution team. Bryan was a threetime Democratic presidential nominee and a former U. S.
Secretary of State but had not tried a case in 36 years. Bryan
declared that as a fundamentalist, he was more interested
“in the Rock of Ages than age of rocks.” Clarence Darrow, a
nationally known defense attorney, volunteered to represent
Scopes.
The trial, one of the first to be broadcast on American
radio, turned into a legal circus. The Dayton courthouse
was jammed with spectators and representatives of the press
from around the country and foreign lands. There were signs
and banners reading; “Come to Jesus” and “Read your Bible
daily.” Hot dog vendors and ice cream stands surrounded
the court house. H. L. Mencken, the crusty correspondent
from the Baltimore Sun, called the spectacle: “The Monkey
Trial.” There was no air conditioning in the courthouse and
the building fans gave little comfort to the crowds. Darrow
later claimed that the fans were always turned away from
the defense.
On the first day of the trial, the presiding judge, John T.
Raulston, ordered the doors closed and, according to Darrow’s
autobiography, “. . with great solemnity and all the dignity
possible, announced that Brother Twitchell would invoke the
Divine Blessing.” Darrow had practiced law for more than
forty years and had never before “heard God called in to
referee a trial.” After the first day’s adjournment, Darrow
suggested to the judge that an opening prayer was unfair,
especially considering the nature of the case. When Judge
Raulston took the bench on the second day, Darrow moved
to eliminate the opening prayer. His motion was overruled
and Darrow later learned that the court had appointed a
committee of church members to assure a supply of opening
prayers.
According to Darrow: “The State brought in a number of
bright little boys who were students of the school taught by
Mr. John T. Scopes.” They said that Mr. Scopes had told them
that life began in the sea from a single cell that gradually
developed into different structures. During the lunch break,
Darrow heard one of the boys say to another: “Don’t you
think Mr. Bryan is a little narrow-minded?”
Darrow created an uproar by calling Bryan as an expert
on the meaning of the word “religion.” When Bryan agreed
to testify, Darrow presented questions that brought out the
fundamentalist’s ideas of religion and Bryan “twisted and
floundered.” The next morning, because of the heat, Judge
Raulston convened court outside on the lawn. He ruled that
Bryan’s testimony was irrelevant and should be stricken, as
should the proposed expert testimony of the defense.
Darrow waived closing argument. This precluded Bryan
from delivering his planned oration and stopped distribution
of the copies prepared for the press. After a nine-minute
deliberation, the jury brought in a “guilty” verdict and
Judge Raulston sentenced John Scopes to the maximum
punishment--a $100 fine!
On appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court found the statute
to be constitutional but set aside the conviction on the
grounds that existing Tennessee law authorized only juries
to set fines above $50.
The Scopes trial is the inspiration for the play Inherit
the Wind, written by two Ohioans, Jerome Lawrence and
Robert Lee. It debuted on Broadway in 1955 and ran for
806 performances. The first film version came out in 1960
and there have been several revivals on both stage and
screen. In 1995, attorneys and friends of the Columbus Bar
Association performed a stage version of “Inherit the Wind”
that was directed by Greg Patterson. The cast included: Doug
Browell, Jeff Ayres, Bill Friedman,
Kay Lias, Pete Mihaly, Jim Rook and
others.
Lloyd E. Fisher, Jr.
[email protected]
Winter 2015 Columbus Bar Lawyers Quarterly
11