Brief History
Cobb County, Georgia, adopted new biology texts which for the first time in Cobb County had a section on evolution. Concerned parents voiced their concern to the school board that the evolution section was presented in a manner that left no room for doubt, effectively presenting as fact something the parents did not believe was an accurate history of the evolution of life. The school board voted to put a sticker in the textbook stating that the textbook contained material about the evolution of life and that evolution was a theory, not a fact, and that it should be carefully studied and critically considered.
A group of parents sued the school board saying the stickers were a law to establish religion and thus violated the first amendment establishment clause prohibiting gov’t from making any laws respecting an establishment of religion. Represented by the ACLU and considered by (Bill Clinton appointed) District Court Judge Clarence Cooper, the plaintiffs prevailed and 38,000 stickers were laboriously scraped out of the biology textbooks this past summer.
The Cobb county school board filed an appeal of the verdict in the 11th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was heard by a three-judge circuit court panel early in December where the judges lashed out in an uncharacteristic manner against the ACLU lawyers and Cooper’s ruling. The appeal ruling will be forthcoming soon and it doesn’t look at all good for the plaintiffs.
Read the lastest news on the case here.