According to an article in this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer [http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/13116793.htm (a free subscription site)], voters in Dover, Pa., where the intelligent design curriculum trial recently concluded, replaced all 8 Republican school board members who were up for re-election with Democrats who campaigned on removing intelligent design from the curriculum. This, note, in a heavily Republican area. (There is a ninth board member whose term did not end.)
When I saw this my first thought was, ok, the new school board (which is sworn in on Dec 5) changes the curriculum, and this would seem to moot the case. Would it be dismissed by agreement? By the judge? Could it be dismissed? Should it be dismissed? But further reading revealed that the group "sponsoring" the slate of Democrats had promised that if they claimed a majority of the school board, they would not rush to change the curriculum. He stated, "The guiding force for this group is going to be Judge Jones' decision." So there goes dismissal by agreement, and I guess there goes dismissal because the issue is mooted. Unless the judge calls the parties in for an in-chambers post-trial settlement attempt? One of the ousted school board members claims the vote was not so much a vote against intelligent design being taught as a vote against spending money to litigate the case. At the end of the article, the writer notes that the Kansas Board of Education "yesterday approved science standards for public schools that cast doubt on the theory of evolution." Jim Maule Villanova Univesrity School of Law _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.