Posted on 02/22/2006 6:52:51 AM PST by Nextrush
The Dover Area school board voted Tuesday night to pay 1 million dollars in legal fees to the attorneys that successfully sued the school district over its intelligent-design policy.... After board members voted, Beth Eveland, one of the parents who sued the district, told the board she and other plaintiffs at the meeting considered it a fair offer. However, she said they were dismayed that the taxpayers and children were left with the bill and believed the old board members should be held accountable. The smallest amount of accountability is an apology, she said.... Heather Geesey, the only remaining member from the previous board, said after the meeting that she took offense to Eveland's remarks. "I don't think I have anything to apologize for," she said. Former board member Ronald Short also isn't planning to apologize. "I don't have anything to apologize for," Short said. "I believe in what the board did before." The $1 million dollar figure was the result of an agreement worked out between plantiffs' attorneys and the district's solicitor. In exchange, the board agrees it will not appeal.... Rothschild, the plantiffs lead attorney, said lawyers will request an order in court entitling the plantiffs to more than $2 million in costs.... Plaintiffs attorney wanted to make sure that other public school districts pondering whether to pursue a religious agenda will think twice, Rothschild said, We think it's important that the public record will reflect how much it costs to stop an unconstitutional action," he said. "Still, we also recognize that this is a small school district."...... Approximately $250,000 will go directly to recovering out-of-pocket expenses, Rothschild said, and will be divided among American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Pepper-Hamilton. The rest will go toward the ACLU and Americans United.....
(Excerpt) Read more at ydr.com ...
Sure it is. The Judge should have held the line.
Definitely ~ part of the problem here is that once it's determined that life originated "out there", we are going to have the ACLU and other Luddite organizations in court demanding that such knowledge be prohibited from exposition in the public schools because, after all, only the "little earth" hypothesis of evolution can possibly be correct ~ and they are going to be waving around prior court decisions and consent decrees to prove their point.
It was not until a Protestant dominated government decided it was OK for Catholics to immigrate to the US and another decision was made to have public schools that a conflict was created ~ where no conflict had previously existed.
But who the heck let the ACLU in? Where did those guys come from? Best we ship them back until we can think of a satisfactory place for them.
I like that idea. Losing lawyers should pay the fees for the winning lawyers. Maybe then hopeless, frivolous cases would never go to trial in the first case. (Waiting to be shredded by the FR legal experts on this one....)
Santorum: Don't put intelligent design in classroom
______________________________
Maybe he looked at the sound thrashing the IDers on the Dover school board members received in a solid GOP county:
Presidential politics: Dover is in York County, which supported George W. Bush in the last two presidential elections. According to unofficial vote totals for 2004, Bush received 114,621 votes and John Kerry received 63,628 votes. [my note: that's about 64% for Bush]
http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/politicalInfo.php?locIndex=275620
I've seen the "holographic universe" term used elsewhere to mean something quite different. Possibly you missed the Scientific American special edition on "The Universe".
I assume they will use their $1 checks to get out of town.
The Constitutional requirement on the judge was to handle this case in a strictly secular fashion. That doesn't mean the ACLU can't bandy about charges and so forth, but misbehavior on the part of the board (having "impure thoughts" I think was the charge) does NOT allow the judge to step into the case and commit the same misdeeds.
Think about it ~ just because a serial killer is being tried doesn't give the judge the authority to gun him down as well as the jury and people in attendance.
There are legal standards of a strictly secular nature that must be used in these sorts of cases ~ ACLU proposed shortcuts are merely more of the same sort of garbage we thought we'd put behind us in the Enlightenment.
Do you really want children taught by people who lie under oath? I find this argument interesting for what it reveals about people's attachment to basic honesty.
If you want a theistic state, take it to the voters. Make it your platform.
Of course you can. They can require you to state anything that is germane to the case. In most cases religion isn't germane, but this is a case about religion brought about by the religious actions of the school board.
Not it isn't. The judge wasn't being asked to ascertain truth of religious beliefs. He was asked to decide whether ID as presented by the board was science or religion. Truth didn't even come into it, except for the fact that certain board members seemed to be unable to tell the truth.
BTW, if we were to kick out all the folks who would or have lied under oath from their jobs, we just have more slackers the rest of us would have to support.
The US government and its subdivisions simply does not have the authority to punish you for failing to claim a religious affiliation.
The judge really isn't authorized to determine if anything is truly religious in nature. He should keep that sort of thing to himself and off the bench.
I would rather support them on welfare than in public office. I would rather have my kids taught in a religious school by people who are sincere in their beliefs than by a bunch of hacks who hide their intentions.
How about removing the heavy hand of the state from education?
It was the school board that started this silliness, not the ACLU or anyone else. You want the state to remain secular, as do I. The Dover school board needed to take creationism and teach it in philosophy class where a)it belongs, and b) I would support it 100%.
I've long been of the mind that in order to really understand western culture and western history, you should be well versed in western religious thinking.
Thanks for the ping!
>>>Approximately $250,000 will go directly to recovering out-of-pocket expenses, Rothschild said, and will be divided among American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Pepper-Hamilton. The rest will go toward the ACLU and Americans United.....<<<<
I bet this is exactly how the Tobacco Settlement worked also.
The monies went INTO the NGOs. So the only way to access the monies is by applying for the grants.
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