A bill (SB561) named the "Louisiana Academic Freedom Act," was pre-filed on March 21, 2008, in the Louisiana Senate by the Education Committee chair, Ben Nevers, a Bogalusa Democrat. While its name is the same as the Florida, Alabama and Discovery Institute bills, the Louisiana version is modeled on a policy adopted in 2006 by the Ouachita Parish School Board with the backing of the pro-creationism Louisiana Family Forum (LFF). The bill contends that "the teaching of some scientific subjects, such as biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy, and that some teachers may be unsure of the expectations concerning how they should present information on such subjects," and extends permission to Louisiana's teachers to "help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course being taught."
Nevers states that he was asked to sponsor the bill by the LFF. Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum, stated that a bill is needed that makes it easier for teachers to delve into criticism of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. However, in introducing the LFF-suggested bill he also stated that the LFF "believe that scientific data related to creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory." Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State described the bill as "all about God in biology class".
On April 21, 2008, Representative Frank Hoffman, who was the assistant superintendent of the Ouachita Parish school system at the time it adopted the LFF-backed policy, introduced an identical bill into the Louisiana House of Representatives (HB1168). The next day, references to evolution, global warming and other subjects were stripped from the senate bill and replaced with calls for more general changes in science classes, and it was renamed the "Louisiana Science Education Act" (and renumbered SB733), and was passed unanimously on April 28, 2008. On June 11, 2008, the House bill was passed by a vote of 94-3. In response, Americans United noted that Louisiana legislators have repeatedly tried to water down the teaching of evolution, with previous attempts having been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, and suggest that this legislation "opens the door to teaching creationism in public schools, an action that is likely to spark litigation".
On June 12, 2008, the day after the House bill passed, "concerned parents, teachers and scientists" formed Louisiana Coalition for Science, "in response to numerous attacks on science education in the Bayou State". Founding members include prominent philosopher and critic of the intelligent design movement Barbara Forrest and veteran biology teacher Patsye Peebles.
In late June 2008, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal signed the bill into law.
The legislation has been criticized by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, with the latter calling for its repeal.
Conservative commentator John Derbyshire questioned the constitutionality of the law, and its likely effects:
Some local school board will take the Act as a permit to bring religious instruction into their science classes. That will irk some parents. Those parents will sue. There will be a noisy and expensive federal lawsuit, possibly followed by further noisy and expensive appeals. The school board will inevitably lose. The property owners of that school district will take the financial hit.
In a December 2008 Scientific American article Glenn Branch and Eugenie Scott stated:
In the meantime, it is clear why the Louisiana Science Education Act is pernicious: it tacitly encourages teachers and local school districts to mis-educate students about evolution, whether by teaching creationism as a scientifically credible alternative or merely by misrepresenting evolution as scientifically controversial. Vast areas of evolutionary science are for all intents and purposes scientifically settled; textbooks and curricula used in the public schools present precisely such basic, uncomplicated, uncontroversial material. Telling students that evolution is a theory in crisis is--to be blunt--a lie.