News from the NCSE

Dear Friends of NCSE,

Antievolution legislation surfaces in Maryland, while in Mississippi, one antievolution bill is dead but another was passed by the Senate. Meanwhile, the Dover Area School Board agrees to pay over $1 million in legal fees and expenses from Kitzmiller v. Dover. The Entomological Society of America adopted a strong resolution on evolution education (and condemning "intelligent design"). And on the CSICOP website, Robert Camp debunks the "teach the controversy" slogan empirically.

ANTIEVOLUTION LEGISLATION IN MARYLAND

House Bill 1531 (PDF), introduced in the Maryland House of Delegates on February 16, 2006, would, if enacted, establish the "Teachers Academic Freedom Act" and the "Faculty Academic Freedom Act" in order to "expressly protect the right of teachers identified by the United States Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard ... to present scientific critiques of prevailing scientific theories; and [to] expressly protect the right of students to hold a position on any views." The bill's sole sponsor is Emmett C. Burns, Jr. (D-District 10); after its first reading, the bill was assigned to the House Rules and Executive Nominations committee.

HB 1531 would provide that teachers in Maryland's public schools and faculty members in Maryland's public institutions of higher education "shall have the affirmative right and freedom to present scientific information to [sic] the full range of scientific views in any curricula or course of learning"; the phrase "the full range of scientific views" is evidently taken from the so-called Santorum language, which was in fact stripped from the federal No Child Left Behind act. A subsequent provision repeats the phrase "the full range of scientific views," while adding, "including intelligent design."

A number of provisions attempt to immunize the bill from the charge that it would allow the teaching of religious doctrines and discredited science: the bill forbids instructors to "stress any particular denomination, sectarian, or religious doctrine or belief" while providing "supporting evidence on the theory of intelligent design," for example, and insists that it is not to be construed as protecting the teaching of "a view that lacks published or empirical or observational support." HB 1531 resembles two antievolution bills introduced in the Alabama legislature in 2006, although it treats K-12 teachers and college instructors separately.

For the text of HB 1531 (PDF),
http://mlis.state.md.us/2006rs/bills/hb/hb1531f.pdf

UPDATE ON MISSISSIPPI ANTIEVOLUTION BILLS

One of the two antievolution bills introduced in the Mississippi legislature in 2005 died in committee, but the other passed through the Senate and is now under consideration by the House Committee on Education. House Bill 953, which would have authorized "the teaching of 'creationism' or 'intelligent design' in the public schools" and moreover required it "[i]f the school's curricuilum requires the teaching of evolution," is listed on the legislature's website as having died in committee on January 31, 2006.

Senate Bill 2427, however, is still alive. If enacted, the bill would ensure that "[n]o local school board, school superintendent or school principal shall prohibit a public school classroom teacher from discussing and answering questions from individual students on the issue of flaws or problems which may exist in Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution and the existence of other theories of evolution, including, but not limited to, the Intelligent Design explanation of the origin of life." SB 2427 was introduced in the Senate on January 10, 2006, and referred to the Committee on Education, which passed it on January 31. The Senate passed the bill on February 6, and it was then transmitted to the House of Representatives, where it was referred to the Committee on Education. During its stay in the Senate, it acquired ten further sponsors: Senators Terry W. Brown, Terry C. Burton, Videt Carmichael, Eugenie S. Clark, Doug Davis, Merle Flowers, Gary Jackson, Tom King, Stacey Pickering, and Richard White.

"INTELLIGENT DESIGN" COSTS DOVER OVER $1,000,000

On February 21, 2006, the Dover Area School Board voted, unanimously with one absention, to pay $1,000,011 in legal fees and damages resulting from the verdict in Kitzmiller v. Dover. The eleven plaintiffs -- local parents who challenged the constitutionality of the Dover Area School Board's policy of requiring students to be taught about "intelligent design" and "gaps/problems" with evolution -- will receive a token $1 each, while the remainder will reimburse the fees and expenses of their legal team.

According to documents filed with the court, the legal team's fees and expenses actually total $2,067,226, but Pepper Hamilton LLP, the private law firm that devoted substantial resources to the case pro bono, agreed to charge only for its expenses. Eric Rothschild of Pepper Hamilton told the York Dispatch (February 22, 2006) that his firm was willing to compromise in recognition of the limited resources of the district and of the change in the school board's composition after the November 2005 election.

In addition to Pepper Hamilton, the plaintiffs' legal team included the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the National Center for Science Education. NCSE consulted pro bono and thus receives no portion of the fees and expenses. The defendants in the case were represented without charge by the Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan-based religious law firm that bills itself as "The Sword and Shield for People of Faith."

Richard Katskee, assistant legal director for Americans United, told the Dispatch (February 23, 2006), "Any board thinking of trying to do what the Dover board did is going to have to look for a bill in excess of $2 million," adding, "I think $2 million is a lot to explain to taxpayers for a lawsuit that should never be fought." The school board was offered the opportunity to rescind its policy -- and to avoid paying legal fees -- immediately after the lawsuit was filed in 2004, but it declined.

Some Creationist News: Henry Morris Passes On...

Here is a newsbit recently released by the Intitute for Creation Research.

After a series of recent minor strokes, Dr. Henry Morris, founder and president of ICR passed away on Saturday, February 25, at about 6:30 p.m. He was 87 years old.

Henry Morris is considered by many to be the founding father or the modern-day creation movement. In addition to the over 60 books on "creation science" he authored over the years, he was the co-author of "The Genesis Flood," the 1960's book which started it all -- reviving a doctrine of a literal six-day event, roughly 6,000 years ago, which had all but been entirely relegated to backwater cults such as Seventh-Day Adventism at that time. He also authored the New Defenders Study Bible, which inserted his own commentary into the mouth of God, and was a pioneer in "Arkeology," or, the search for the remains of Noah's Ark upon the mountain known as Agri Dagi -- or, 'Mount Ararat,' in Eastern Turkey.

Although it is inappropriate to rejoice in the death of an ideological opponent, no matter how controvertial or damaging his or her ideas may be, we should reflect on whether or not the passing of this creationist patriarch signals the decline of this movement, or whether the damage he caused is only just beginning. It is a sad event when anyone passes, but it is all the more sadder when we contemplate that his entire life's work must inevitably be undone someday. I therefore hope everyone will join me in whishing nothing but the best toward Henry Morris' family. Their grief must be truly unbearable, faith notwithstanding.

Eric