After Governor Austin Peay signed the Butler Bill (prohibiting the teaching of evolution) into law in the spring of 1925, the American Civil Liberties Union offered to represent a Tennessee educator in a test case of the law, which they believed was unconstitutional. Civic leaders in Dayton, Tennessee, decided to pursue such an effort in an attempt to draw publicity to their community. They approached John Scopes, a football coach and science teacher at the local high school, who agreed to serve as the defendant. He was indicted in late May. The trial opened on July 10, 1925.
The ACLU defense team included John Randolph Neal, former UT professor, Clarence Darrow, Dudley Field Malone, and others. For the prosecution, the most notable attorney was William Jennings Bryan, who served on the team as a special prosecutor. The most famous segment of the trial is the 90-minute examination by Darrow of Bryan, who had been called to the stand as an expert witness on the Bible. After 10 minutes’ deliberation on July 21, the jury returned a verdict of “guilty,” and Judge Raulston levied the minimum fine of $100 on Scopes, explaining that the local custom in other cases was for the jury to consider fines only if they wished to impose more than the minimum.
The Tennessee Supreme Court issued a divided ruling on the appeal brought by the ACLU in January 1927, holding that since nothing in the Butler Act required the teaching of anything, it could not be seen as an attempt to establish religion and did not violate either the federal or state constitution. They voided the conviction, however, because the Tennessee Constitution clearly stated that any fine greater than $50 was to be levied by the jury. The court also strongly recommended against retrial of the case. Joseph Wood Krutch, UT graduate, was one of the reporters covering the trial.