The giraffe example is largely bogus, and Lamarckian theories of the transmission of acquired traits has been pretty well thrown out of court.
Speaking of court, here is a wonderful blow-by-blow account of The Scopes Trial including profiles of the two oratorical giants, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, who spearheaded the opposing sides.
The trial was serious, the rhetoric was serious, but the results were not: it was overturned on a minor technicality and dismissed by the state's higher ground. It never noticed the constitutional issues. But it is of great historical interest.