DAVENPORT

Not at the present time, Your Honor.

JUDGE

We shall proceed with the case for the defense. Colonel Drummond.

DRUMMOND

(Rising)

Your Honor, I wish to call Dr. Amos D. Keller, head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Chicago.

BRADY

Objection.

(DRUMMOND turns, startled.)

DRUMMOND

On what grounds?

BRADY

I wish to inquire what possible relevance the testimony of a Zoo-ology professor can have in this trial.

DRUMMOND

(Reasonably)

It has every relevance! My client is on trial for teaching Evolution. Any testimony relating to his alleged infringement of the law must be admitted!

BRADY

Irrelevant, immaterial, inadmissible.

DRUMMOND

(Sharply)

Why? If Bertram Cates were accused of murder, would it be irrelevant to call expert witnesses to examine the weapon? Would you rule out testimony that the so-called murder weapon was incapable of firing a bullet?

JUDGE

I fail to grasp the learned counsel’s meaning.

DRUMMOND

Oh. (With exaggerated gestures, as if explaining things to a small child) Your Honor, the defense wishes to place Dr. Keller on the stand to explain to the gentlemen of the jury exactly what the evolutionary theory is. How can they pass judgment on it if they don’t know what it’s all about?

BRADY

I hold that the very law we are here to enforce excludes such testimony! The people of this state have made it very clear that they do not want this zoo-ological hogwash slobbered around the schoolrooms! And I refuse to allow these agnostic scientists to employ this courtroom as a sounding board, as a platform from which they can shout their heresies into the headlines!

JUDGE

(After some thoughtful hesitation)

Colonel Drummond, the court rules that zoology is irrelevant to the case.

(The JUDGE flashes his customary mechanical and humorless grin.)

DRUMMOND

Agnostic scientists! Then I call Dr. Allen Page—(Staring straight at BRADY) Deacon of the Congregational Church—and professor of geology and archeology at Oberlin College.

BRADY

(Drily)

Objection!

JUDGE

Objection sustained.

(Again, the meaningless grin.)

DRUMMOND

(Astonished)

In one breath, does the court deny the existence of zoology, geology and archeology?

JUDGE

We do not deny the existence of these sciences: but they do not relate to this point of law.

DRUMMOND

(Fiery)

I call Walter Aaronson, philosopher, anthropologist, author! One of the most brilliant minds in the world today! Objection, Colonel Brady?

BRADY

(Nodding, smugly)

Objection.

DRUMMOND

Your Honor! The Defense has brought to Hillsboro—at great expense and inconvenience—fifteen noted scientists! The great thinkers of our time! Their testimony is basic to the defense of my client. For it is my intent to show this court that what Bertram Cates spoke quietly one spring afternoon in the Hillsboro High School is no crime! It is incontrovertible as geometry in every enlightened community of minds!

JUDGE

In this community, Colonel Drummond—and in this sovereign state—exactly the opposite is the case. The language of the law is clear; we do not need experts to question the validity of a law that is already on the books.