5 A series of court decisions prohibit the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in public
schools. In spite of efforts in many American states and localities to ban the teaching of
evolution in public schools or to teach alternatives to evolution, courts in recent decades have
consistently rejected public school curricula that veer away from evolutionary theory. In
Edwards v. Aguillard (1987), for instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law
requiring public school students to learn both evolution and creation science violated the U.S.
Constitutions prohibition on the establishment of religion.