This month, America commemorates the 100th anniversary of a landmark cultural event that taught us about the dangers of censorship. July of 1925 witnessed the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” where a Dayton, Tennessee, public school teacher was put on trial for violating a state law that prohibited teaching human evolution.

The teaching of scientific ideas should never be banned, much less criminalized. We like to think of censorship as something from the dark ages of the past, before our modern enlightened era vanquished intellectual intolerance. But 100 years after Scopes, we have what the late Supreme Court Justice Scalia once called “Scopes-in-reverse,” where scientists and scholars face reprisals if they challenge neo-Darwinian evolution.

For about 20 years I’ve been collecting examples of academic speech codes that prevent faculty from discussing scientific alternatives to Darwin. For example:

Back in 2005, Cornell’s interim president devoted a State of the University Address to denounce “intelligent design (ID),” arguing that it has no place in science classrooms. “The answer is that intelligent design is not valid as science, that is, it has no ability to develop new knowledge through hypothesis testing…” Also in 2005, the president of the University of Idaho instituted a campus-wide speech-code, where “evolution” was “the only curriculum that is appropriate” for science classes. This was done in retaliation against biology professor Scott Minnich, who had just testified in favor of intelligent design at the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial — a case which ultimately banned ID from public schools in Dover, PA. Jerry Coyne, a University of Chicago evolutionary biologist and atheist blogger, once wrote that “adherence to ID…should be absolute grounds for not hiring a science professor.” In 2013, Coyne attacked Eric Hedin, a physics professor at Ball State University (BSU), for briefly teaching about ID in an honors seminar. BSU’s president then caved, and issued a speech code declaring that “intelligent design is not appropriate content for science courses.” In 2020, two Norwegian scientists published a paper in Journal of Theoretical Biology citing the work of leading ID theorists and arguing for “a Design Science.” Facing pressure, the journal’s editors then issued a disclaimer addressing no substantive arguments in the paper but implementing another speech code, announcing: “intelligent design is not in any way a suitable topic for the Journal of Theoretical Biology.”

Perhaps the most ironic recent example of evolutionary censorship will take place this month at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, not far down the road from Dayton, as it celebrates a “Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial Centennial Symposium.” Co-organized by Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Institute and the National Center for Science Education, the symposium includes many credible speakers from science, philosophy, and law. Intelligent design is on the schedule, and there is an entire session devoted to the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. Yet exactly zero pro-ID scientists or scholars are slated for the symposium.

In February, and again in May, I emailed the organizers of the Scopes Symposium, offering to provide names of credible pro-ID scientists who would be open to participating in their event. No one even replied.

The irony is palpable: a symposium that is supposed to be remembering the dangers of censorship regarding evolution is itself practicing censorship regarding evolution.

An even worse irony is that Vanderbilt’s website hosts an official “Dialogue Vanderbilt” / “Commitment to Free Expression” page which boasts of the university’s supposed commitment to “bringing together people of differing viewpoints for a common purpose.” The page continues:

Transformative education, pathbreaking research and the timeless search for truth all require a wide variety of viewpoints, the uninhibited exchange of ideas, the persistent challenging of conventional wisdom, and courageous and vigorous debate.

A university that dutifully transmits canonical knowledge, but is not at the same time alive with diverse perspectives, probing critique and the practice of query and argument, is a university in name only.

The page then lauds the importance of “institutional neutrality,” quoting former Vanderbilt Chancellor Alexander Heard stating: “A university’s obligation is not to protect students from ideas, but rather to expose them to ideas, and to help make them capable of handling and, hopefully, having ideas.”

The one-sided Scopes Symposium completely rejects these ideals, aiming to “protect” students from non-Darwinian viewpoints — directly violating the Chancellor Heard’s warning. By Vanderbilt’s own standards, apparently it is “a university in name only.”

A century ago, religious fundamentalists excluded evolution from education. Yet today, evolution advocates do the same to intelligent design. Vanderbilt’s Scopes symposium is just the latest reminder that in our modern era of “Scopes-in-reverse,” the power dynamic has shifted 180 degrees, but the problem of censorship still remains.

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Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg and a law degree from the University of San Diego. He is Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute and co-author of the book “Science and Human Origins.”

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a member of a far-left organization that raked in cash from the Biden administration as it advocated for illegal aliens.

Abrego Garcia, infamously and erroneously dubbed a “Maryland man” by Democrat politicians after he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, was a member of a leftwing organization called CASA, which lobbies on behalf of illegal aliens and is now advocating for the Salvadoran national to be shielded from deportation.

The group called to abolish ICE and runs campaigns to prevent local law enforcement agents from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement, all while the Biden administration pledged more than $5 million to the organization. It also openly identified Abrego Garcia, a suspected MS-13 human smuggler, as a member of the organization.

“CASA is outraged that ICE deported CASA member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in violation of a court order and at grave personal danger,” the organization wrote in a statement.

Now, CASA falsely claims that “the Trump administration disappeared Kilmar Abrego Garcia.” The leftwing organization identified the suspected MS-13 gang member and human smuggler as one of its members in an April statement condemning his deportation, and has remained involved in the case, with CASA representatives appearing to flank his wife at a recent press conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

CASA, to which the Biden administration awarded millions of taxpayer dollars, has offices across the mid-Atlantic region, including in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia resided prior to his deportation. Included in the more than $5 million awarded to CASA by the federal government since 2022 was a $250,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to fund “innovations in citizenship preparation.”

The group has multiple membership tiers, including one that allows members to access a range of services, including legal deportation defense, vocational training, and citizenship application assistance. Each of the three membership tiers requires members to pay a monthly or annual fee. It is not apparent what membership tier Abrego Garcia belonged to, nor whether he sought out services from the leftwing organization.

CASA did not respond to a Daily Wire inquiry concerning Abrego Garcia’s membership.

In addition to offering support services to illegal aliens, CASA also pushes an extreme ideological agenda. The far-left organization calls for ICE to be abolished, calling it a “rogue agency” that has “caused immense harm to our communities.”

The organization notes that it is currently working to pass legislation in Maryland that would prevent local law enforcement agencies from working with ICE to identify and apprehend illegal aliens. The group is also advocating for legislation that would prevent ICE from obtaining identifying information from Maryland’s state and local agencies, shielding illegal aliens from being identified by federal immigration enforcement agents.

The group’s sister organization, called CASA in Action, advocates for specific policies and endorses candidates who encourage “greater engagement of Latinos and voters of color in elections.”

“By mobilizing Black, Latine, Afro-descendent, Indigenous, and Immigrant voters, CASA in Action … play[s] a powerful role in electing progressive change leaders,” the group goes on to say.

Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to stand trial for human smuggling charges, but is expected to be deported yet again before his trial concludes, this time to a willing “third country” instead of his home country of El Salvador.