Court Test Begins For School District's 'Intelligent Design'

[Judi Lynn]

Court Test Begins For School District's 'Intelligent Design'
Several Families Claim District's Policy Unconstitutional

POSTED: 11:35 am EDT September 26, 2005
UPDATED: 3:01 pm EDT September 26, 2005

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The merits of teaching "intelligent design" as a basis for human development are being argued in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

In opening statements Monday, a lawyer for eight families who contend it's unconstitutional argued it's a religious theory with no scientific backing.

Eric Rothschild told a federal judge in Harrisburg that the Dover Area School District incorporated the viewpoint in its curriculum with no thought "about its scientific validity."

But, the school district's attorney countered that having ninth-grade students read a statement on intelligent design "embodies the essence of liberal education."
(snip/...)

http://www.wsoctv.com/education/5020656/detail.html

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Mon Sep 26 13:45:06 2005 Pacific Time

Pennsylvania School Policy Mandating Instruction on 'Intelligent Design' Is Unconstitutional, Duke Expert Says

DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Dover, Pa., school board policy mandating that high school biology classes cover "alternatives" to evolution, including the idea of "intelligent design," violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a Duke University constitutional law expert says.

"Almost 20 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a state law that required 'balanced treatment,' that creationism be taught alongside evolution," said Erwin Chemerinsky, the Alston & Bird Professor of Law at Duke's School of Law.

"The Supreme Court invalidated this statute and explained that evolution is a scientific theory accounting for the origin of human life, while creationism is religion's answer. The Court said that there is no secular purpose in having creationism taught in the schools."

Eleven parents sued the school board and the district over the policy. The case was scheduled to begin Monday in federal district court in Harrisburg, Pa. The New York Times noted the case is the first direct challenge to a district's mandating instruction on intelligent design.
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http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050926.125700&time=13%2045%20PDT&year=2005&public=0

[elehhhhna]

1. If every P. S. parent who opposes the teaching of ID kept the kids home

for just the few days when they're hawking that baloney, the schools would LOSE BIG, BIG MONEY (headcount, dontchaknow?)and this would be a dead issue.

Freakonomics works.

Start making threats to boycott, people. This battle's easy to win.

[Realityhack]

4. I don't understand...

thats calculated daily? What aid is it that they loose?

[elehhhhna]

5. IIRC their fed funds are calc'd on DAILY attend'ce--

too many kids out in a month and oopsie the check gets smaller.

[ThumperDumper]

2. intelligent design doesn't hold under cross examination! n/t

[krkaufman]

3. No pun intended? n/t

[Kablooie]

6. Intelligent design works pretty well for Apple though.

[WindRavenX]

7. I hope ID is exposed for the psuedo-science crap it is

Nothing, and I mean nothing, boils my blood quicker than hearing about ID.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. In the 21st century you'd think this would be passe.

Cleary somthing intelligent did not desigh these people.

[Ernesto]

9. Evolution Lawsuit Opens in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 26 - Intelligent design is not science, has no support from any major American scientific organization and does not belong in a public school science classroom, a prominent biologist testified on the opening day of the nation's first legal battle over whether it is permissible to teach the
fledgling "design" theory as an alternative to evolution.
Eleven parents in the small town of Dover, just south of here, are suing their school board for introducing intelligent design in the ninth-grade biology curriculum. The parents accuse the board of injecting religious creationism into science classes in the guise of intelligent design. Professor Miller, their main expert witness, was the only person to take the stand on Monday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/education/27evolution.html

[SteppingRazor]

10. Given the overwhelming evidence...

I think even a Roberts SCOTUS (since this almost certainly will go to the SCOTUS) can't help but find that this is just creationism, and thus unconstitutional from precedent.

But, we'll just have to wait and see.

[FM Arouet666]

11. If intelligent design passes muster in SCOTUS

We are doomed. Watch the fall of abortion and the separation of church and state. Mandatory prayer in school? Laws forbidding anti-christian speech? Censorship in the media and on television against all things non-christian.

I will have to offer support from afar if this occurs, 1932 and the writing is on the wall.

[ClintonFor08]

12. IDiotic stuff do not belong in science classes

ID is nothing but religious philosophy based on some ancient literature. It belong in a philosophy class, just like Greek literature. :)

[Kailassa]

14. Nope, not philosophy either.

Any philosopher would pull that idiocy apart even faster than a scientist would.

If they start teaching ID in science class, can we get the theory of religion as a weapon of mind destruction taught in church?

[corksean]

13. What is there to teach?

INTELLIGENT DESIGN 101:

God did it.

Schoolbell rings, children shuffle out of classroom.....