You are hereC. F. v. Capistrano USD
In December of 2007, the Farnan family sued the Capistrano Unified School District (Orange County, California), as well as one of its history teachers, James Corbett. The Farnan family charged that various remarks Corbett had made were an "exhibition of hostility toward religion and endorsement of irreligion in a public school classroom," thereby violating the First Amendment rights of their son, Chad ["C.F."], one of Corbett's students. Peloza v. Capistrano USD
In September of 1991, a biology teacher named John E. Peloza sued the Capistrano Unified School District (Orange County, California) for forcing him to teach evolution as scientific fact, and for prohibited him from discussing his religious beliefs with students during instructional time. Represented by the Rutherford Institute, Peloza claimed that these policies, and an alleged conspiracy among his administrators and fellow teachers to harass and defame him, violated his freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and rights to due process and equal protection. ACSI et al. v. Stearns et al.
On August 25, 2005, the Association of Christian Schools International, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, California, and six students at the school filed a lawsuit against the University of California. Institute for Creation Research Graduate School v. Paredes et al.This page collects the legal documents from the case Institute for Creation Research Graduate School v. Raymund A. Paredes et al.
The ICR Graduate School is "an unincorporated educational ministry unit of The Institute for Creation Research, Inc." The defendants are officers of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; Raymund Paredes is the CEO of the Board and Texas Commissioner of Higher Education. The ICR Graduate School filed two separate suits, one in Texas state court, and another in federal court, in the Northern District of Texas. Comer v. Scott and Texas Education Agency
All the legal documentation available to us for the case of Christina Castillo Comer v. Robert Scott, in his official capacity as commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, and the Texas Education Agency is provided at the bottom of this page. It is arranged in chronological order. The ruling dismissing the case can be downloaded here. Audio of the oral argument from the appeal can be downloaded here (WMA file) Discovery Institute's “Model Academic Freedom Statute on Evolution"
On February 7, 2008, the Discovery Institute launched academicfreedompetition.com in cooperation with Motive Marketing, one of the companies in charge of promoting Expelled. Among other things, this site contains the following model "academic freedom" bill:
[version: 9/7/2007] Edwards v. Aguillard
In a landmark ruling in 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the state of Louisiana's "Creationism Act" was unconstitutional. This statute prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools, except when it was accompanied by instruction in "creation science". The Court found that, by advancing the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind, which is embraced by the term "creation science," the act impermissibly endorsed a particular religious viewpoint. Padian's Expert Testimony
Kevin Padian's testimony and slides in the Kitzmiller caseThe expert witness testimony given by paleontologist Kevin Padian was a highlight of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial. His testimony and the slides he showed to the court are now available here, via the links at the bottom of his page. Creationism and the Law
Legal challenges to anti-evolution policies began with the Scopes Trial of 1925, a case the evolution advocates actually lost. Since 1968, however, U.S. courts have consistently held that "creationism" is a particular religious viewpoint and that teaching it in public schools would violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. For a one page summary of important court cases, see Ten Major Court Cases about Creationism and Evolution. Pages
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