US District Court Judge John Jones ruled today that the policies passed by the old Dover PA school board forcing the teaching of Intelligent Design are unconstitutional. (For the full-text of the judgment click here.) Halleluiah. The best part about the ruling is that it is written by a Bush appointed judge who personally advocates Intelligent Design, so hopefully that little tidbit of information will help head off the inevitable call that the decision was made by an activist court (although judging by how the supporters of the Administration have reacted to the domestic spying case I am not optimistic–see Dan’s series on States of Exception for the excrutiating details).

The money quote for me:

The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.

Wow–that is satisfying. He also notes that the members of the school board were ill-informed–as should be evident to anyone who understands what it means for an idea to be scientific (if it can’t be tested and potentially falsified it is just your opinion, not a theory)–as well as backed by a public interest law firm looking for a test case on ID. Nothing like screwing students by pushing a pseudo-scientific curriculum in order to further your own crusade. Well done folks, well done. All in all things turned out well. Darwin seems to have triumphed yet again.

Filed as: Intelligent Design, Evolution