Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/106

102 have received the approval of the governor, or shall have been otherwise passed under the provisions of this constitution."

As I understand the position of defendant's counsel at bar, there is no insistence that this ground is good, and no evidence before the court that would indicate the invalidity of this act, because of any violation of this section of the constitution. Therefore, the same is overruled.

(d) In that it violates Section 3, Article 1 of the constitution of TennessessTennessee [sic], which reads as follows:

"Sec. 3. Right of Worship Free.—That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that no man can of right, be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any minister against his consent; that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship."

And also:

(e) In that it violates Section 19, Article 1 of the constitution of Tennessee, which reads as follows:

"Sec. 19. Printing Presses Free; Freedom of Speech, etc., Secured.—That the printing presses shall be free to every person to examine the proceedings of the legislature or of any branch or officer of the government, and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof."

"The free communication of thoughts and opinions, is one of the invaluable rights of man, and every citizen may freely speak, write and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. But in the prosecutions for the publications of papers investigating the official conduct of officers, or men in public capacity, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libel, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court as in other criminal cases."

It will be observed that the first provision in this section of our constitution provides that all men shall have the natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. I fail to see how this act in any wise interferes or in the least restrains any person from worshiping God in the manner that best pleaseth him. It gives no preference to any particular religion or mode of worship. Our public schools are not maintained as places of worship, but, on the contrary, were designed, instituted, and are maintained for the purpose of mental and moral development and discipline.

This section fully provides that: "No man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any minister against his consent; that no human authority can in any case whatever control or interfere with the right of conscience; that no preference shall be given by law to any religion or established mode of worship."

I cannot conceive how the teachers' rights under this provision of the constitution would be violated by the act in issue. There is no law in the state of Tennessee that undertakes to compel this defendant, or any other citizen, to accept employment in the public schools. The relations between the teacher and his employer are purely contractual and if his conscience constrains him to teach the evolution theory, he can find opportunities elsewhere in other schools in the state, to follow the dictates of his conscience, and give full expression to his beliefs and convictions upon this and other subjects without any interferencinterference [sic] from the State of Tennessee or its authorities, so far as this act is concerned. Neither do I see how the act lays any restraint on his right to worship according to the dictates of his conscience. Under the provisions of this act this defendant, or any other person, can entertain any religious belief which most appeals,