1982
The federal district-court case that struck down Arkansas Act 590, a creation-science balanced-treatment law for public-school science instruction.
New to legal case records? Start with the case-dossier primer for a compact explanation of court levels, trial records, and First Amendment education cases.
Why This Record Matters
McLean is a useful starting point for reading creation-science litigation because the record preserves the statute, the trial testimony, depositions, expert scientific evidence, and Judge William Overton's decision in one documentary set. The case sits between the Scopes-era classroom controversies and the later Edwards and Kitzmiller decisions.
Documentation Project Provenance
The project acknowledgments record that the effort began with discussions between Don Frack and Troy Britain about preserving the trial transcript. At a 1999 Skeptics' Society meeting, McLean became a topic of discussion among Don Frack, Troy Britain, Mark Todd, John Castalano, and Wesley Elsberry. That discussion led to extended correspondence and, in mid-2000, the first acquisition of copies from the plaintiffs' portion of the trial transcript.
For Readers New to the Case
What was challenged?
Arkansas Act 590 required balanced treatment for creation science and evolution science in public-school science classes.
What kind of case was it?
A federal civil case decided by a judge after a bench trial, not a criminal prosecution and not a jury trial.
What constitutional issue mattered?
The central question was whether the statute violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by advancing religion in public education.
Why are the documents useful?
The testimony and depositions show how scientists, educators, clergy, and creation-science advocates presented the issues before the court.
Suggested Reading Path
Start with the decision
Read the court's reasoning first. It explains what Act 590 required and why the judge found the law unconstitutional.
Then read the statute
Act 590 is the object of the lawsuit. Reading the statute after the decision makes the legal analysis easier to follow.
Use the document index selectively
The Documentation Project contains testimony, depositions, attorney notes, and transcript pages. It is a research collection, not a short article.
Compare later cases
Edwards and Kitzmiller show how creation-science and intelligent-design litigation developed after McLean.
Document Entry Points
Decision
The preserved TalkOrigins text of Judge Overton's decision.
Statute
Arkansas Act 590, the law challenged in the case.
Trial testimony
Witness testimony, including scientific and educational context.
Depositions
Pretrial sworn testimony from witnesses and parties, reached through the complete document index.
Full document index
The complete modernized document landing page for the McLean corpus.
Topics
Conceptual Connections
Creation Science
Background on creationist claims and why courts examined whether creation science was a religious doctrine rather than science.
Index to Creationist Claims
A claim-by-claim route into scientific and historical issues that often appear around creation-science advocacy.
Legal Case Primer
Definitions and reading guidance for court records, trial documents, and First Amendment education cases.
Edwards v. Aguillard
The later Supreme Court creation-science decision, useful for comparing district-court and Supreme Court treatment.
Primary Links
- McLean v. Arkansas decision Preserved TalkOrigins decision text.
- Legal-proceedings primer Orientation for readers new to court records and First Amendment education cases.
- Documentation Project index Modernized document collection for testimony, depositions, and legal materials.
- McLean bibliography Existing TalkOrigins bibliography route.
- Edwards v. Aguillard Later Supreme Court case on creation-science mandates.
- Kitzmiller v. Dover Later intelligent-design case dossier.