Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District was a significant legal case in the United States that centered around the teaching of intelligent design (ID) in public school science classes. In 2004, the Dover Area School Board, influenced by a newly elected group of Christian fundamentalists, mandated the inclusion of a statement in the biology curriculum that presented ID as an alternative to evolution. This decision prompted a lawsuit from a group of parents, led by Tammy Kitzmiller, who argued that the requirement was an unconstitutional attempt to introduce religious doctrine into public education.
The trial, held in 2005, featured expert testimony from prominent biologists and a defense witness who struggled to substantiate ID as a scientific theory. On December 20, 2005, Federal Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science and deemed the school board's actions as promoting religious beliefs. The ruling resulted in a $2 million fine against the district and effectively curtailed future efforts to integrate religious concepts into science curricula in public schools. The case remains a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over science and religion in education, highlighting the tensions between differing worldviews and the legal boundaries of public schooling.
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
The Case: US federal district court ruling that requiring the teaching of intelligent design violates the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution
Date: Decided on December 20, 2005
The Dover (PA) Area School District had required science teachers to include a statement that intelligent design (ID) is a viable alternative to evolution. Federal judge John E. Jones III ruled this requirement unconstitutional. He further stated that ID is a form of creationism and therefore represents religious doctrine.
Dover is a small town located just outside of York, Pennsylvania. The school board election of 2001 resulted in the selection of several Christian fundamentalists, most notably William Buckingham and Alan Bonsell. Led by Buckingham and Bonsell, the Dover Area School Board voted in October 2004 to require a statement be added to the biology curriculum that students “be made aware . . . of other theories of evolution including . . . intelligent design.” An “anonymous” donor, later revealed to be Buckingham, purchased sixty copies of the creationist science book Of Pandas and People (1993) to be made available for students.
In December 2004, the American Civil Liberties Union, representing Tammy Kitzmiller as lead plaintiff and ten other parents, filed suit, alleging an attempt to insert religion into the science curriculum using intelligent design as a “wedge.” The school board was represented by the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian law center established by Domino’s Pizza magnate Tom Monaghan. The trial was held between September 26 and November 4, 2005, before Judge John E. Jones III in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Witnesses for the plaintiffs included a number of prominent biologists in the field of evolution. The first, and among the most important, witness for the defense was Professor Michael Behe, a biochemist with expertise in the blood-clotting pathway. Behe attempted to argue that intelligent design is legitimate science, though he conceded that no peer-reviewed articles exist to support his claim. Nor could Behe propose how ID could account for biological complexity other than through a “designer.”
On December 20, 2005, Jones ruled that ID is not science and that the statement required by the Dover school district represented a religious belief. He further fined the district over $2 million to ensure no such further lawsuits would be necessary.
Impact
The decision and the penalty imposed on the Dover Area School Board effectively ended any further attempts to insert religious doctrine into secondary school curricula. While Jones’s ruling did result in some criticism, primarily from members of the Discovery Institute, a fundamentalist Christian organization which works to research alternatives to evolution, most legal scholars have felt his decision to be the final word on the subject.
The eight members of the school board who had voted to institute the statement were defeated in their reelection bids four days after the completion of the trial. The plaintiffs accepted a bid by the new board to pay slightly more than $1 million in fees and damages in settling the lawsuit.
Bibliography
Dembski, William, and Jonathan Witt. Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the Controversy. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2010. Print.
Lebo, Lauri. The Devil in Dover: An Insider’s Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-Town America. New York: New, 2008. Print.
Slack, Gordy. The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA. San Francisco: Jossey, 2007. Print.