Religions > Atheism > AMERICANS UNITED URGES FEDERAL APPEALS COURT TO UPHOLD BAN ON EVOLUTION DISCLAIMERS IN GEORGIA
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
14 Jun 2005 09:11:45 AM |
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AMERICANS UNITED URGES FEDERAL APPEALS COURT TO UPHOLD BAN ON EVOLUTION DISCLAIMERS IN GEORGIA |
PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 10, 2005
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Contact: Joe Conn, Rob Boston or Jeremy Leaming
www.au.org
AMERICANS UNITED URGES FEDERAL APPEALS COURT TO UPHOLD BAN ON EVOLUTION
DISCLAIMERS IN GEORGIA
Cobb County Textbook Stickers Critical Of Evolution Are Designed To Advance
Religion, Watchdog Group Says
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked a federal
appeals court to reject a religiously motivated move to undercut the
teaching of evolution in Cobb County, Ga., public schools.
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the Cobb County School District v.
Selman case today, Americans United advised the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals that the disclaimers pasted into science textbooks were included at
the behest of fundamentalists who oppose evolution and want the public
school curriculum to reflect their religious views.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, said the Cobb
County school board should not be permitted to sacrifice appropriate
science education to placate a vocal fundamentalist faction.
"The appeals court should tell the Cobb County School Board to quit playing
with stickers and get back to providing sound science education that meets
the needs of our children and the demands of the Constitution," Lynn said.
"Religious pressure groups must not be allowed to take control of the
public schools."
A federal district order ordered the Cobb County anti-evolution stickers
removed, and now the appeals court is weighing the issue.
Joining Americans United on the brief are the American Jewish Committee and
the Anti-Defamation League.
The brief notes that placement of the stickers came after community
pressure from religious activists who oppose the teaching of evolution in
public schools. The action was the latest in a long string of
anti-evolution moves by education officials in Cobb County.
Observes the brief, "The Cobb County School Board has evinced a
long-standing anti-evolution, pro-creationism bias. Since at least 1979
(until 2002), teaching about the 'origin of human species' was permitted
only in elective high-school classes and was excluded entirely from the
elementary-school and middle-school curricula."
The sticker reads, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution
is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This
material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and
critically considered."
The AU brief rejects claims that the school board had a secular reason for
using the sticker.
"The School Board acted not to promote critical thinking in general, but to
cause 'students to consider critically information regarding evolution to
try to determine its validity,'" Americans United asserts. "The School
Board thus singled out evolution for negative treatment, as no disclaimer
relating to any other theory, topic, or subject is placed on any Cobb
County school textbook."
The AU brief was drafted by Alex J. Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel
for Americans United, and Meir Feder of the national law firm Jones Day,
legal counsel for the American Jewish Committee.
A wide array of other science, education, religious and civil liberties
groups also filed briefs asking the appeals court to rule against the
anti-evolution stickers.
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington,
D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the
importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
************************************************************************
www.au.org
***********************************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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| User: "Rich Travsky" |
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| Title: Judge Tosses Stickers Re: AMERICANS UNITED URGES FEDERAL APPEALS COURTTO UPHOLD BAN ON EVOLUTION DISCLAIMERS IN GEORGIA |
22 Jun 2005 12:09:51 PM |
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wrote:
PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 10, 2005
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Contact: Joe Conn, Rob Boston or Jeremy Leaming
www.au.org
AMERICANS UNITED URGES FEDERAL APPEALS COURT TO UPHOLD BAN ON EVOLUTION
DISCLAIMERS IN GEORGIA
Cobb County Textbook Stickers Critical Of Evolution Are Designed To Advance
Religion, Watchdog Group Says
Followup
http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/6822028/
Updated: 7:27 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2005
ATLANTA - A federal judge Thursday ordered a suburban Atlanta school system
to remove stickers from its high school biology textbooks that call evolution
“a theory, not a fact,” saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional
endorsement of religion.
“By denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the
well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof,
even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative
theories,” U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said.
...
We now pause while rightards claim this is "judicial activism"...
[...]
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