Summary of the case

In March 2002, the Cobb County School District in Georgia voted to insert the label below on the inside front cover of biology and other science textbooks.

• In November 2004, Jeffrey Selman and 3 other parents brought suit against the school district on constitutional grounds.
• In January 2005, Federal District Court Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that the disclaimers are unconstitutional.
• In April, Cobb County School District filed an Appeals brief with 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
• In June 2005, Selman et al. filed a brief with 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
• In June 2005, NCSE submitted an amicus brief along with 7 others urging the Appeals Court to uphold the District Court ruling.
• In December 2005, a 3-judge panel heard oral argument in the appeal
• In May 2006, the Appeals Court remanded the case to the district court for clarification of the evidentiary record.
• On December 19, 2006, the lawsuit reached a settlement; the Cobb County School District agreed not to disclaim or denigrate evolution either orally or in written form.

All the legal documentation available to us for this case is provided at the bottom of this page. It is arranged in chronological order.

For key documents and articles associated with each phase of the case, please see the following pages:

Initial Trial Appeal Retrial and Settlement

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Related Off-Site Material

Kenneth Miller, writing in the Boston Globe: Remove stickers, open minds

Nick Matzke, at The Panda's Thumb: History and Cobb County