100 Years Since the Scopes Monkey Trial: Evolution, Education, and Establishment

2025 First Amendment Days Keynote

The Scopes "monkey trial" of 1925 was the first controversy over the teaching of evolution in the public schools to reach a courtroom. It was not the last, although in the following century, tactics have shifted and battlefields have expanded. In his talk, Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education will describe the contentious legal history of evolution education from the Scopes era to the present day, with a focus on the legal system's evolving understanding of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

Glenn Branch is deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit organization that defends the integrity of American science education against ideological interference. He is the author of numerous articles on evolution education and climate education, and the co-editor, with Eugenie C. Scott, of Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is Wrong for Our Schools (2006). He received the Evolution Education Award for 2020 from the National Association of Biology Teachers.