February 10, 2010

U.S. district judge William Ray Overton is best known for his 1982 ruling in McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, which held the teaching of creationism to be unconstitutional. The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of Act 590 of 1981, which required Arkansas public schools to have a “balanced treatment” between creation science and evolution. Overton ruled that “no group, no matter how large or small, may use the organs of government, of which the public schools are the most conspicuous and influential, to foist its religious beliefs on others.”