Tennessee monkey bill

The 2012 Tennessee "monkey bill" is an anti-evolution bill with the intent of enabling the criticism of that science — along with global warming and human cloning — that passed into law in April 2012, though without Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam's signature.NCSE: "Monkey bill" enacted in Tennessee
==Content==
Known officially as House Bill 368/Senate Bill 893, the bill contends that:
Nevertheless, the bill in no way clarifies the subject. Instead, the bill demands that an "environment" be created that:
Which is all well and good, except that it is standard creationist bill language — a similar passage is present in the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act. The bill also includes the "strengths and weaknesses" language common in some bill varieties, with teachers to be encouraged to:
The bill also includes the standard we're-not-trying-to-teach-religion safety paragraph:
All this is an attempt to circumvent rules preventing the teaching of creationism in the classroom by protecting teachers' ability — to the extent of outright encouraging them — to use creationist materials specifically targeted at attacking evolution. With this in mind, it is ironic that the bill also concedes that:
The bill will almost certainly have the opposite effect.
==Criticism==
Naturally, the bill has attracted significant criticism. The National Center for Science Education was of course highly critical. Eugenie C. Scott did a number of interviews attacking the bill,Expert: Bills on creationism off base and the NCSE website recorded much of the controversy.
===Mainstream===
Local and out-of-state newspapers were also critical. A Los Angeles Times editorial called the motives behind the bill "dumb,"'Monkey' business, again, in Tennessee while a Murfreesboro Daily News Journal editorial claimed that the legislature showed "a general disrespect for scientific academia in favor of running its religious views up a flagpole."EDITORIAL: Legislature wants Scopes trial rerun
In The Tennessean, science writer Leslie Brunetta noted that such bills as this were bad for the health of her fellow cancer sufferers.Anti-evolution movement imperils medical research The American Society of Human Genetics released a statement after the bill passed noting its disappointment.ASHG Statement on Tennessee Law Undermining the Teaching of Evolution Nature also ran a critical story on the bill.Tennessee ‘monkey bill’ becomes law
===Creationist===
There was some opposition to the bill even within creationist circles. Todd Wood, of the notorious Bryan College, wrote a letter to the Governor expressing his point of view. It got taken down fairly quickly;Who is turning the screws on Todd Wood, the creationist biologist who opposes Tennesee’s new monkey law? however, it survived long enough in the Google cache to be preserved.The preserved letter.
Wood's primary argument in the letter was that the bill was in fact unnecessary, and that teachers already had the freedom to teach about real scientific controversies. However, a Panda's Thumb blogger, Nick Matzke, noted that Wood "for a long time one of the only self-critical, independent, and somewhat realistic voices within creationism, just doesn’t think that pushing ID/creationism via government power and the public schools is a good idea."
Some days later, Wood put up a blog post further explaining his position.Now about that evolution bill Josh Rosenau wrote a commentary on this new post,Todd Wood, the Disco. 'tute, and the Monkey Bill and Matzke also posted on it.Todd Wood and Tennesee’s New Monkey Law While Wood had apparently taken down the letter of his own free will, he reported that the Discovery Institute had circulated a letter "trying to drum up some resistance on the Bryan campus to my opinion."
==Veto?==
After the bill passed the legislature on March 29,Tennessee "monkey bill" passes legislature there were widespread calls for Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to veto the bill, including from the local branch of the ACLU.Hedy Weinberg: Gov. Bill Haslam should veto 'Monkey Bill' However, at the end of the day, Haslam neither signed nor vetoed the bill.
Given that the Tennessee legislature only requires a simple majority to overturn a veto,Tennessee Government and Politics: Democracy in the Volunteer StateJohn A. Fairlie, The Veto Power of the State Governor and the wide majority with which the bill originally passed, a veto would have had little effect beyond putting up a token resistance. Instead, he made the following statement:
Whether this is a cop-out or not is a matter of opinion. Certainly, it bears a resemblance to former Governor Austin Peay's statement when he signed the Butler Act on March 21, 1925:
And we all know what happened to that...
==Consequences==
As has been repeatedly alluded to in the press, there is a high chance that the bill will find itself in the courts, Scopes trial-style. However, given the lack of direct invocation and litigation over the Louisiana act since its enactment in 2008, this could take some time.
In the meantime, it is certain to negatively impact both the standard of science education in Tennessee and public perception of the state.
==See also==
*Academic Freedom Act
*Edwards v. Aguillard
*Teach the controversy
==References==
Category:Creationism