ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac) (02/01/85)
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The following article has appeared in the January 25 issue of Science.
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Louisiana's balanced treatment act, which mandates equal teaching of
so-called creation science and evolution in the state's public schools, has
been ruled unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds by Federal judge
Adrian Duplantier. The ruling, delivered in New Orleans on 10 January, was
in response to a motion for summary judgment filed in September by the American
Civil Liberties Union, which has been representing the law's critics in the
tortuous legal wrangles that followed its enactment in July 1981.
Although the Louisiana creationism law had been deliverately drafted
in somewhat vaguer terms than the version that was struck from Arkansas's
statute book in January 1982 in an attempt to make it less vulnerable to
legal challenge, Judge Duplantier's reasoning parallels precisely the Arkansas
decision. "Because it [the state's balanced treatment law] promotes the beliefs
of some theistic sects to the detriment of others, the statute violates the
fundamental First Amendment principle . . . that a state must be neutral in its
treatment of religions," ruled Duplantier. Creationism, as incorporated in the
balanced treatment law, was religion, not science, he added.
The law's supporters had filed more than 1000 pages of discussion in its
defense, much of which focused on what exactly science is. Duplantier's
response to his was blunt: "We decline the invitation to judge that debate."
The state's attorney general, William Guste, says he will appeal Duplantier's
decision and therefore hopes that a judge on the Fifth U.S. Circuit can be
persuaded of the value of such a debate.- Roger Lewin
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This is a generic disclaimer. As such it may contain unsightly impurities.
However, these impurities are guaranteed to be purely cosmetic. They
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"Don't argue with a fool. Ethan Vishniac
Borrow his money." {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan
Department of Astronomy
University of Texas
Austin, Texas 78712