The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) has selected six scientific experiments for the early phase of the project. The LCLS, with proposed construction in the 2003-2006 time frame, has been designed to utilize the last third of the existing Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) linac. This document presents descriptions of the early scientific experiments selected by SAC in the spring of 2000. They cover a wide range of scientific fields. The experimental teams consist of many internationally recognized scientists who are excited about the unprecedented x-ray capabilities of LCLS that surely will lead to new scientific frontiers. More generally, this document serves to forward the scientific case for an accelerator-based XFEL source, as requested by the BESAC subpanel on Novel Coherent Light Sources, chaired by Stephen R. Leone.