The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) were already aware that the Act was likely to become law because it had been passed by the lower house of the Tennessee legislature by a landslide (in January, 1925). After a few false starts, the ACLU sent a press release to several Tennessee newspapers, such as the Chattanooga Daily Times, announcing that they would provide legal assistance, etc. for a school teacher in Tennessee who would be willing to stand trial for having taught evolution in a public school so that a test case could be mounted to challenge the constitutional validity of the Act.
Encouraged by George Rappelyea, (a mining engineer who managed six local coal and iron mines owned by the Cumberland Coal Company), a group of leading citizens in the small town of Dayton* - the "drug store conspirators" - decided to accept the ACLU's offer, in the hope that the publicity surrounding the trial would help to reverse the town's declining fortunes. On May 4th the group recruited John Scopes, football coach and occasional stand-in teacher at Rhea County High School as the subject for the test case, on the basis that he had taught from the section on evolution in Hunter's A Civic Biology - the State-approved textbook.
(* Dayton is situated in the valley between the Cumberland Plateau and the Appalachian Mountains. It is just a few miles West of a line from Chattanooga (36 miles to the Sou' Sou' West) to Knoxville (79 miles to the North East).)
Rappelyea sent a telegram to the ACLU's New York office. The ACLU replied promptly, accepting his proposal. Scopes was charged on May 7th with having taught evolution on April 24th, 1925. A preliminary hearing on May 10th bound him over pending a specially convened Grand Jury hearing on May 25th. The membersof the Grand Jury, who are well aware of the true purpose of the charge against Scopes, handed down an indictment and Scopes was instructed to present himself at the Rhea County court house for trial on the morning of July 10th.
At no time was Scopes held in jail on this charge which, by the way, was only classed as a "misdemeanor", not a "crime."
The Overture
On hearing about the trial, from the leaders of the WFCA (World's Christian Fundamentals Association), on May 12th William Jennings Bryan volunteered his services to the prosecution. By the end of that week Clarence Darrow had contacted Scopes with an offer to appear pro bono for the defense.
This case is about a 15 year old kid, along with a friend, who made an erotic call to a neighbor's house. The alleged incident took place on June 8, 1964 by Gerald Gault and Ronald Lewis. Mrs. Cook, the neighbor, filed a complaint which resulted in Gerald Gault’s arrest. Gerald was indeed on probation for something he had done prior to this incident. The officer who made the arrest did not leave notice for the juvenile's parents and did not endeavor to advise them of their child's arrest, however, they found out about the arrest from Ronald Lewis later.. “After arresting a juvenile, an officer must notify the juvenile's parent or legal guardian regarding: the whereabouts of the child, the nature of the charges, and the police department's planned course of action” (O'Neil, 2010). Gerald’s mother was giving information on when the hearing for her son was after arriving where he was
In the 19th century Gregor Mendel accomplished pioneered the first laws of genetics after crossing peas. He conducted an experiment with pea plants. He would use a paintbrush to transfer the genetic coding from one pea plant to another, so he could know exactly who the parents were. With the end of this experiment Mendel came up with two laws; Mendel 's law of segregation, and Mendel 's law of independent assortment. Mendel crossed over purple pea flowers with white pea flowers, which gave him purple pea flowers for the first generation also called F1. Since the offspring were all purple flowers Mendel understood that the purple gene was the dominant gene. Mendel decided to cross the F1 generation with themselves. Which resulted in three purple pea flowers and one white pea flower. By using basic Punnett square, and identify the genotype as PP and the phenotype as pp. This gave Mendel the following ratio of 3:1, three purple pea flowers and one
The major topic of this experiment was to examine two different crosses between Drosophila fruit flies and to determine how many flies of each phenotype were produced. Phenotype refers to an individual’s appearance, where as genotype refers to an individual’s genes. The basic law of genetics that was examined in this lab was formulated by a man often times called the “father of genetics,” Gregor Mendel. He determined that individuals have two alternate forms of a gene, referred to as two alleles. An individual can me homozygous dominant (two dominant alleles, AA), homozygous recessive, (two recessive alleles, aa), or heterozygous (one dominant and one recessive allele, Aa). There were tow particular crosses that took place in this experiment. The first cross-performed was Ebony Bodies versus Vestigle Wings, where Long wings are dominant over short wings and normal bodies are dominant over black bodies. The other cross that was performed was White versus Wild where red eyes in fruit flies are dominant over white eyes.
Biologist, Gregor Johann Mendel, discovered how traits passed from one generation to the next. Mendel studied and used pea plants to discover the principles that rule heredity. He found that each parent, father, and mother pass down traits to their offspring, who inherit different combinations of their recessive or dominant alleles-terms introduced by Mendel during the 19th century. Mendel introduced important principles teaching us that recessive traits will only be shown in the phenotype if both alleles are recessive. Mendel’s laws of inheritance include the Law of segregation and the Law of independent assortment.
...y modified organisms can not only infiltrate our ecosystem and threaten the natural processes but they can also impose health risks for the living in various areas. In closing, it is important to be aware of the benefits and limitations of genetically modified organisms. The real question is do you want them in your life?
It was irrational for these students to be suspended from the school. The high school students named John F. Tinker, who was fifteen-years-old, John’s younger sister Mary Beth Tinker, who was thirteen-years-old, and their friend Christopher Eckhardt, who was sixteen years old, should not have been suspended. They were under the protection of the First Amendment. The parents of those students sued the school district for violating the students’ right of expressions and sought an injunction to prevent the school from decupling the students. The Supreme Court of the United Sates stepped in and the question of law was if. They ruled in the favor of the Tinker’s because it was in a seven to two decision "Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community School District."
In 1925, a teacher named John T Scopes was arrested for teaching the Theory of Evolution as this contradicted religion and their beliefs that God created the world.
The interpretation of the case is just as popular, if not more, than the actual result of the case. The worldwide attention and media coverage the case received produced many opinions. Scholar’s opinions range from describing the case as an irrelevancy and a good show to describing it as a “Watershed in American religious history” (Ronald L. Numbers, 1998, p. 76). A large factor in why the Scopes trial has received so much attention in an insignificant town is because of the stage that the trial was played out on.
Stanley Kramer's film, Inherit the Wind, examines a trial based on the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Often referred to as "The Trial of the Century" (Scopes Trial Web Page), the Scopes trial illuminated the controversy between the Christian theory of creation and the more scientific theory of evolution. John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, was arrested for illegally teaching evolutionism to his class. "The meaning of the trial emerged because it was seen as a conflict of social and intellectual values" (Scopes Trial Web Page). Kramer's film dramatizes this conflict between the Christian believers and the evolutionists in "Hillsboro, heavenly Hillsboro, the buckle on the Bible belt" (Inherit the Wind). Prosecutor Matthew Brady represents the values of fundamental Christianity while defense attorney Henry Drummond is the voice of reason and science. Although the two men have been good friends and partners in the past, the case in Hillsboro illuminates the difference in their values. Through the scene on the porch with Matthew Brady and Henry Drummond, director Stanley Kramer illustrates the incessant tug-of-war between religion and science. More specifically, camera angle and Drummond's metaphor of the "Golden Dancer" help deliver Kramer's belief in evolutionism.
evidence and the right of a condemned man to ask for testing.("A.B. Butler").He was exonerated by
In the article “Individual Autonomy and Social Structure”, Dorothy Lee talks about individual autonomy. She goes through the topic by examining different groups such as; the Wintu Indians of California, the Sikh family, the Navaho Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Chinese culture. All of these different groups and societies give personal freedom to the individuals regardless of age groups. The example of Navaho Indians is used by Lee to demonstrate how “personal autonomy is supported by the cultural framework” (Lee, 1959, p.5). She points out the individual autonomy of non-western societies to the individuality of western society. One group gives full independence to an individual while the other does not and puts restrictions in place through some form. She states “...in a heterogeneous society such as ours, and in an era of induced change and speeded temp of living, it has been difficult to implement this tenet in the everyday details of living” (Lee, 1959, p.5). She points out the fast living pace of western society, where the personal autonomy given from the other cultures is lacking.
Modern technology has taken amazing strides in the past few years. We have changed the way we deal with food production, agriculture, and many other aspects of life.. Scientists have begun utilizing these advances in technology and knowledge to gain insight as to how the human species functions. They are on the verge of manipulating the way humans relate to the natural world. This revolutionary breakthrough is what is known as Genetic Engineering. Genetic Engineering is the process of manually adding new DNA molecules into an already existing organism. A simplified version of the process works by physically removing a gene from one organism and placing it into another. This is being done in an effort to
simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU, tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from all over to witness whether science or religion would win the day. Yet, below all the hype, the trial had a deeper meaning.
Genes are expected to give offspring hereditary similarities to the parent. However, this was not known and Gregory Mendel asked himself what was passed on by parents to their offspring that is the basis for similarity. Mendel would go on through experiments with pea plants to answer short questions. The answers were short as well as to say that the passing of characteristics from parents to the offspring is throug...
The Safety of genetic engineering is something that presents much concern. Looking at the current precautions and previous precautions of the biotechnological industry can clear up the safety issue. The FDA and State Governments impose limits such as the illegalization of human cloning and limits on other genetic engineering processes. The only legal forms of genetic engineering that are used today are in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and sperm banks.