September 13, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
HARRISBURG, PA-- A federal judge today denied an attempt by the Dover Area School Board to prevent a lawsuit challenging the presentation of 'intelligent design' in public science classrooms from going forward. The trial will begin as scheduled on September 26.
The legal team, which consists of attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP, welcomed today's decision.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III denied the school board's petition for summary judgment noting that genuine issues exist as to "whether the challenged Policy has a secular purpose and whether the Policy's principal or primary effect advances or inhibits religion despite Defendants' arguments to the contrary."
The lawsuit challenges a controversial decision made in October by the Dover Area School Board to require biology teachers to present 'intelligent design' as an alternative to the scientific theory of evolution. 'Intelligent design' is an assertion that a supernatural entity is responsible for the creation of life. The lawsuit argues that such an assertion is a controversial religious theory that falls completely outside of mainstream science.
Critics have called 'intelligent design' a pseudo-religion that does not come from theological seminaries or science laboratories but from political think tanks and lobbyists. At the time of the October vote, district science teachers opposed the policy and three school board members have since quit in protest of the decision.
For a copy of today's decision go to: http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=19076&c=139
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