Cobb County cops out, caves in to Darwinists

Many readers here are by now aware that the wimpy Cobb County board of education has settled out-of-court with the Darwinists in the Selman v. Cobb County evolution-disclaimer textbook sticker case. This is a terrible disappointment to many because the school board had a lot going for it. The appeals court had vacated the decision and remanded the case back to the district court because of missing evidence which appeared to be unlikely to be found, and in oral hearings the appeals judges appeared to indicate that they would reverse the decision even if the missing evidence were found. I think that it was foolish and irresponsible of the board of education to give up so easily.

A press release of the Cobb County board of education said,

“We are very pleased to reach this agreement and end the lawsuit,” said Cobb County Board of Education Chair Dr. Teresa Plenge. “After the 11th Circuit Court vacated the decision, we faced the distraction and expense of starting all over with more legal actions and another trial. . . "

“Appealing the lower court ruling was the right decision by the school board because that ruling was incorrect,” said Dr. Plenge. “The Board maintains that the stickers were constitutional, but, at the same time, the Board clearly sees the need to put this divisive issue behind us."

These politicians make themselves look very foolish by saying that conclusions of lawsuits over controversial issues put the issues "behind us." Kitzmiller v. Dover is not behind us a full year after the decision -- it is as controversial as ever. Roe v. Wade is certainly not "behind us."

I am especially surprised and disturbed that the board agreed to pay legal fees to the plaintiffs:

In a separate agreement, the District has agreed to pay $166,659, which represents a portion of the plaintiff’s legal fees.

The board was in the driver's seat and should have insisted on no payment of legal fees.

The one consolation here is that this case will have even less precedential value than the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. In fact, the precedential value of Selman v. Cobb County is now zilch -- the district court's decision is now null and void because it was vacated by the appeals court.

The response from the Americans United for Separation of Church and State is here. A timeline of the case and a list of articles is here. The Discovery Institute has a list of articles here.

Here is a list of some of this blog's articles about the case:

What happened to the Cobb County textbook sticker case?

"Traipsing into breathtaking inanity" II: analysis of Selman v. Cobb County

Sticker shock -- appeals court ducks textbook sticker case

Close votes in Freiler case show shakiness of Selman and Kitzmiller decisions

Aptly named "Lemon test" sucks

Disclaimer sticker for Selman v. Cobb County opinion

Attorney's open letter on Selman v. Cobb County textbook sticker case (particularly recommended)

The "Dover Trap" Myth

To find other articles in this blog that discuss or mention the case, just enter "Cobb" or "Selman" in the blog-search window in the top border of the blog screen (you must be scrolled to the very top to see the window).

I may later add some more observations in the comments section of this article.