Actually, a fair reading of the opinion indicates that is was in fact an activist opinion.
Sometimes activisism can acheive the "correct" results, but it is always wrong.
Any ruling which includes an attack on a legislative body for being "activist" has a real problem -- because legislation can be activist. That is where you WANT activism. We elect people to represent us, and to enact laws and regulations reflecting what we would like to see.
This judge injected himself into the political process to protect us (the unwashed masses) from electing people who enacted stupid regulations (stupid defined by the benevolent dictatorship of the judiciary).
I would note that the people of Dover rose up and voted out of office the representatives on the board who supported ID. ID was going down, through the normal legislative process, and the judge short-circuited that process and disenfranchised a minority of people by telling them that THEIR opinions have no place in law.
The constitution does not forbid bad law, and has no clause making it unconstitutional for a school to teach bad science.
When it comes right down to it, the judge just made this another "separation of church and state" ruling -- and the 4th circuit court of appeals just pointed out that there is no separation of church and state.
ID is not a religion, and teaching ID in science is NOT establishing a religion, forcing anybody to believe in a religion, or providing preferential treatment to a specific religion -- because ID is NOT a religion. Roman Catholocism is a religion, Mormanism is a religion, Islam is a religion.
ID at its worst could be described as a belief arising out of a religious viewpoint. "Thou shalt not Murder" is not religion either, but it has as firm religious foundation, just as some say ID does.
It is about time that the supreme court ends this activist judicial philosophy of denying the people the right to laws that have a moral or religious basis, in the false guise of preventing the "establishment of religion".
IT doesn't matter whether you think ID should be taught as science or not. The judge's ruling was an activist anti-religion ruling, and should be overturned (it won't be, because the people have spoken, and the new school board won't spend another dime on this).
The correct thing for the anti-ID folks to do would have been to launch an education campaign in Dover, to teach the citizens so they would rise up and vote out the offending board members. That's how democracy works. Using the courts to acheive legislative solutions is the definition of activism.
No, a fair reading of the opinion indicates that the judge ruled by applying the controlling, precedential law (which he, as a district judge, is required to do) to the facts as presented at trial. That isn't activism, that's his job.