Victory for Intelligent Design

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Victory for Intelligent Design

Special Report - August 30, 2011
A group that had previously been unfairly denied the opportunity to show a film promoting Intelligent Design (ID) will receive $110,000 from the state-run California Science Center (CSC) and be allowed to reschedule the cancelled event. The American Freedom Alliance (AFA) had brought a lawsuit in California Superior Court against the CSC alleging that AFA’s First Amendment rights to free speech had been violated because of its support for Intelligent Design (ID), after CSC cancelled a theatre rental to AFA to show a film, Darwin’s Dilemma, a documentary that is critical of evolution and favorable to ID. AFA’s lawsuit accused the CSC of engaging in “viewpoint discrimination and breach of contract,” according to a press release from the Discovery Institute.

“This is the first free speech case for the ID movement, and its first victory in that field,” according to attorney William J. Becker, Jr., who represented AFA in the lawsuit. “This settlement represents an acknowledgement that a state-owned science institution sought to censor an event solely because it related to ID. It’s a vindication for ID, and First Amendment guarantees of free speech.”

The Discovery Institute cites two other cases alleging discrimination against ID that resulted in settlements. Astronomer Martin Gaskell received over $100,000 in January from the University of Kentucky as a result of his claim that his doubt of Darwinism lead to the University’s decision to deny him employment. In another case, the publication, Applied Mathematics Letters issued a public apology and paid thousands of dollars to mathematician Granville Sewell to avoid a lawsuit after wrongfully withdrawing Sewell’s paper critiquing portions of Darwinism.

Related resources:
"Academic Freedom Day" Challenges Evolution - February 11, 2009
Intelligent Design Interview with Stephen Meyer - FNC - April 2010
Intelligent Design Interview with Phillip Johnson - FNC- July 2011
Intelligent Design: Are We Here By Accident? - Findings - June 2006