Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Selman v. Cobb County School District

Here is a link to the opinion of the federal district court (Judge Clarence Cooper).

And here is a summary of the case from the liberal ACS blog:

Court Says Evolution Stickers in Textbooks Are Unconstitutional
Judge Clarence Cooper, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, declared that evolution stickers placed in textbooks by a public school board are unconstitutional. Cooper held that the stickers violate the 1st Amendment's establishment clause. The stickers proclaim, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered." In his decision Cooper explained, "the distinction of evolution as a theory rather than a fact is the distinction that religiously motivated individuals have specifically asked school boards to make in the most recent anti-evolution movement, and that was exactly what parents in Cobb County did in this case." He added, "The school board has effectively improperly entangled itself with religion by appearing to take a position. Therefore, the sticker must be removed from all of the textbooks into which it has been placed."

Ten Commandments Opinions

Here is the SCOTUS opinion in the McCreary County case (the Kentucky case).

Here is the SCOTUS opinion in Van Orden (the Texas case).

For Judge Roy Moore's views of these cases, see his article here.

RLUIPA Upheld by SCOTUS: Cutter v. Wilkinson

On Tuesday, May 31, 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously upheld the prison provisions of RLUIPA against an Establishment Clause challenge.

You can access the Supreme Court opinions here and the oral argument transcript here.

And here and here are law professor commentary on the opinion. And here is an article from the Christian Science Monitor that views Cutter as a significant boost for the rights of minority religious groups.