Given the latest efforts in Texas and Florida (and elsewhere) to push religious views into the science classroom, I thought it might be helpful to remind everyone of this blood curdling story.
Dover gets a million-dollar bill
That’s $1M less than what law firm says it’s owed
CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN The York Dispatch
Article Last Updated: 02/22/2006 12:29:04 PM ESTLegal fees for thousands of hours of attorney services and a six-week trial: $1 million.
Damages paid to 11 parents whose rights were violated in the Dover Area School District: $1 each.
A sense of closure: Priceless.
The Dover Area School Board voted last night to pay $1,000,011 in legal fees and damages for parents who successfully sued the district for teaching intelligent design in ninth-grade biology classes.
The district — ultimately, its taxpayers — must pay the fees because a federal judge ruled that the policy to require mentioning intelligent design was religiously motivated and violated the Constitution.
…
Pepper Hamilton attorney Eric Rothschild, who handled much of the case, said yesterday that court records will show the parents’ attorneys were entitled to more than $2 million, though they will accept less than half that amount.
… He said the higher amount “is meant as a deterrent to other government actors who might consider violating the Constitution by teaching religious views in science class.”
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There’s a belief among US right-wingers, and thus among most of the US population, that there’s an epidemic of people suing for frivolous reasons: coffee being too hot, someone accidentally brushing against you on a sidewalk, etc. The reality of the American situation is well illustrated by this post. It is too expensive for there to be the sort of suing epidemic that US right-wingers claim. To get even a semblance of justice (and it’s almost always just a semblance) in the US, you have to be wealthy, or be prepared to be penniless and in debt for the rest of your life. If you’re wealthy, however, you can insure that you get your way in the courts, and you can even continue vengefully suing the other party to bankrupt them. Greatest nation on earth, indeed.
OR, you can accept gratis the assistance of a crack legal team that will be your sword and shield, with victory assured. Whoops! They didn’t say they would pay plaintiff’s legal costs!
Ergo, setting a good example for children is rude. With minds like that, how did the previous school board go so wrong.
One million bucks is fair, considering that before they filed and litigated, they simply asked the school board to desist from the policy. They refused.
The School Board should sue their attorneys for the fees.
Justice will not be done until the purgerers are put in jail.
(I don’t think “purgerers” is spelled right, but my spell checker only gives me Limburgers, beefburgers, and spurges).
Throw the beefburgers in jail, I say!
Perjurers.
Indeed, they are! And in Jail they should Rot!
The School Board should sue their attorneys for the fees.
As I recall, the School Board’s legal advisor told them they needed to back off, and the Board refused. The creationists on the Board (who were all voted out at the election after the trial) have no one to blame but themselves.