HARRISBURG, Pa. — On Sept. 13, a federal judge refused to block a suit by Pennsylvania parents who are challenging the presentation of “intelligent design” in public school science classrooms. The ruling by Judge John E. Jones III clears the way for a trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 26 in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, on the issue of whether biology teachers in the Dover Area School District should present intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. Lawyers and national organizations representing 11 parents in the district filed suit to bar references to intelligent design after the school board voted last year to require teachers to mention the theory in class and refer students to a book in the library on the subject.
Supporters of intelligent design believe that the universe and living things are best explained by the existence of a guiding force.
Jones said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that a government-sponsored message violates the First Amendment if that message does not have a secular purpose, its primary effect advances or inhibits religion or it excessively entangles government and religion. In rejecting a school board request to dismiss the challenge to intelligent design, Jones said “genuine issues” exist regarding “whether the challenged policy has a secular purpose and whether the policy’s principal or primary effect advance (the school board’s) arguments to the contrary.”
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