A bill filed Monday would allow the teaching of religious beliefs of creation alongside scientific theories in public schools.
The incomplete shell bill, House Bill 2050 by Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, states "the purpose of this act is to amend the Arkansas Code to allow public school teachers to teach creationism and intelligent design as theories alongside the teaching of the origins of the earth and the theory of evolution."
Courts have held similar Arkansas laws unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state's teaching ban against the theory of evolution in a 1968 ruling.
In 1982, U.S. District Court Judge William R. Overton ruled that Act 590 of 1981 was unconstitutional. That law mandated that the state "give balanced treatment to creation science and to evolution-science."
-- John Moritz
A Section on 03/07/2017