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2 unusual facts about Edwards v. Aguillard


Edwards v. Aguillard

Wendell Bird served as a special assistant attorney general for Louisiana in the case and later became a staff attorney for the Institute for Creation Research and Association of Christian Schools International.

Modern American creationism arose out of the theological split over modernist higher criticism and its rejection by the Fundamentalist Christian movement which promoted Biblical literalism and, post 1920, took up the anti-evolution cause led by William Jennings Bryan.


Association of Christian Schools International

The National Center for Science Education noted, "One of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs is Wendell Bird, a former staff attorney for the Institute for Creation Research. As a special assistant attorney general for Louisiana, he defended the state's "equal time" law, which was ruled to be unconstitutional in Edwards v. Aguillard.

B. Dexter Ryland

On March 18, 2005, Judge Ryland upheld the actions of the Louisiana College trustees when they elected the theologically conservative, Joe W. Aguillard, a former school superintendent in Beauregard Parish, as the new president to succeed the retiring Dr. Rory Lee.

Dean H. Kenyon

In 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard the Supreme Court heard a case concerning a Louisiana Law that required "creation science" be taught on an equal basis with evolution in public schools.

Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education

Three conservative members of the Supreme Court dissented; Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist, who had also dissented from the decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, were joined by 1991 George H.W. Bush appointee Clarence Thomas.

Joe W. Aguillard

Quarles resigned at the end of the school year and has been named professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

The next month, Aguillard hosted a campaign event on the LC campus for former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who was then seeking the Republican presidential nomination subsequently won by Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

During the rally, Aguillard claimed that he would "consider shutting down" Louisiana College if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is implemented.

Why People Believe Weird Things

He closes retelling how a constitutional ban on teaching creationism in public schools was narrowly upheld at the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987.


see also

Of Pandas and People

Both authors had previously written young Earth creationist publications referring to biological design: a 1967 book co-written by Percival Davis referred to "design according to which basic organisms were created", and in an 1984 article as well as in his affidavit to Edwards v. Aguillard, Kenyon defended creation science by stating that "biomolecular systems require intelligent design and engineering know-how".