"Kansas education officials deny standards they adopted for teaching of science in public schools endorse what critics say is ... 'a non-theistic religious Worldview,'" reports the Topeka Capital-Journal (June 8, 2015), discussing a brief submitted by the defendants-appellees in COPE et al. v. Kansas State Board of Education et al.
As NCSE previously reported, after the Kansas state board of education voted to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards in June 2013, a lawsuit attempting to undo the decision was filed, alleging that the NGSS "will have the effect of causing Kansas public schools to establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview."
The lead plaintiff is COPE, Citizens for Objective Public Education, a relatively new creationist organization founded in 2012. But its leaders and attorneys include people familiar from previous attacks on evolution education across the country, such as John H. Calvert of the Intelligent Design Network.
In December 2014, the lawsuit was dismissed, largely because the plaintiffs lacked standing to assert any of their claims, failing to establish any of the three relevant requirements for standing: injury, causation, and addressability. But COPE swiftly appealed the dismissal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
In its brief (PDF), filed on March 20, 2015, COPE contended that the dismissal was erroneous because it failed to take into consideration all alleged injuries, to recognize that the injuries were particularized, concrete, and imminent, and to comport with controlling legal precedents from the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court.
In their brief, filed on June 8, 2015, the defendants-appellees primarily focused on the issues of standing, but pointedly insisted (PDF, pp. 4-5), "Contrary to Plaintiffs' claims, the Science Standards do not address religious questions such as the existence of a god or gods ... Plaintiff's description of the Science Standards as 'atheistic' is a gross mischaracterization."