stating that the historical approach used in Marsh “is not useful in determining the proper roles of church and state in public schools, since free public education was virtually nonexistent at the time the Constitution was adopted”
How later courts described this case
- stating that the historical approach used in Marsh “is not useful in determining the proper roles of church and state in public schools, since free public education was virtually nonexistent at the time the Constitution was adopted”
- holding that Louisiana’s Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction Act was unconstitutional because the act’s primary purpose was the promotion of a particular religious belief
- finding purported purpose of protecting academic freedom to be insincere in light of the fact that "the Act does not serve to protect academic freedom, but has the distinctly different purpose of discrediting evolution"
- finding that legislation requiring the teaching of creationism along with evolution did not have a secular purpose because the legislative history suggested that the purpose "was to narrow the science curriculum"
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Justice White,
concurring in the judgment.
As it comes to us, this is not a difficult case. Based on the historical setting and plain language of the Act both courts construed the statutory words “creation science” to refer to a religious belief, which the Act required to be taught if evolu *609 tion was taught. In other words, the teaching of evolution was conditioned on the teaching of a religious belief. Both courts concluded that the state legislature’s primary purpose was to advance religion and that the statute was therefore unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause.
We usually defer to courts of appeals on the meaning of a state statute, especially when a district court has the same view. Of course, we have the power to disagree, and the lower courts in a particular case may be plainly wrong. But if the meaning ascribed to a state statute by a court of appeals is a rational construction of the statute, we normally accept it. Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U. S. 491, 499-500 (1985); Chardon v. Fumero Soto, 462 U. S. 650, 654-655, n. 5 (1983); Haring v. Prosise, 462 U. S. 306, 314, n. 8 (1983); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U. S. 547, 558, n. 12 (1967); General Box Co. v. United States, 351 U. S. 159, 165 (1956). We do so because we believe “that district courts and courts of appeals are better schooled in and more able to interpret the laws of their respective States.” Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, supra, at 500 . Brockett also indicates that the usual rule applies in First Amendment cases.
Here, the District Judge, relying on the terms of the Act, discerned its purpose to be the furtherance of a religious belief, and a panel of the Court of Appeals agreed. Of those four judges, two are Louisianians. I would accept this view of the statute. Even if as an original matter I might have arrived at a different conclusion based on a reading of the statute and the record before us, I cannot say that the two courts below are so plainly wrong that they should be reversed. Rehearing en banc was denied by an 8-7 vote, the dissenters expressing their disagreement with the panel decision. The disagreement, however, was over the construction of the Louisiana statute, particularly the assessment of its purpose, and offers no justification for departing from the usual rule counseling against de novo constructions of state statutes.
*610 If the Court of Appeals’ construction is to be accepted, so is its conclusion that under our prior cases the Balanced Treatment Act is unconstitutional because its primary purpose is to further a religious belief by imposing certain requirements on the school curriculum. Unless, therefore, we are to reconsider the Court’s decisions interpreting the Establishment Clause, I agree that the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be affirmed.