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The latest ruling on the religion-science front is by a Federal judge in California holding that a public school teacher who called creationism "religious, superstitious nonsense," violated a creationist student's First Amendment rights.

The student, known only as "C.F." in the court papers, has been revealed to be Chad Farnan in the news media and the teacher was James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High School. Numerous other alleged violations of the student's rights were thrown out but the one statement was found to be a violation of the Establishment Clause, which will probably cost the school district dearly in legal fees.

Corbett's statement indirectly involved the somewhat famous case from the early 1990s of John Peloza, a teacher who sued the Capistrano Unified School District, claiming that the school, by requiring him to teach evolution, was violating his First Amendment rights by making him teach a "religion;" was violating his Free Speech rights by prohibiting him from talking with students about religion during the school day; and that the school had defamed him. As the court in the new ruling explained the connection:

Peloza apparently brought suit against Corbett because Corbett was the advisor to a student newspaper which ran an article suggesting that Peloza was teaching religion rather than science in his classroom. (Id.) Corbett explained to his class that Peloza, a teacher, "was not telling the kids [Peloza's students] the scientific truth about evolution." Corbett also told his students that, in response to a request to give Peloza space in the newspaper to present his point of view, Corbett stated, "I will not leave John Peloza alone to propagandize kids with this religious, superstitious nonsense." One could argue that Corbett meant that Peloza should not be presenting his religious ideas to students or that Peloza was presenting faulty science to the students. But there is more to the statement: Corbett states an unequivocal belief that creationism is "superstitious nonsense."

The judge found that legitimate secular purpose in this statement, even when considered in context, and, therefore, it constitutes improper disapproval of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. As the judge explained the law (citations and internal quotation marks omitted):

Here, Farnan contends that Corbett violated the Establishment Clause by making comments hostile to religion and to Christianity in particular. Although [the Lemon test] is most frequently invoked in cases involving alleged governmental preferences to religion, the test also accommodates the analysis of a claim brought under a hostility to religion theory. There is no question that the government neutrality required under the Establishment Clause is violated as much by government disapproval of religion as it is by government approval of religion. Thus, the Court must apply the Lemon test to determine whether Corbett made statements in class that were improperly hostile to or disapproving of religion in general, or of Christianity in particular.

The lesson is not restricted to such blatant cases, however. It is clear that a government teacher could not teach that philosophical naturalism is true, as that would clearly render most religions false. And it is more than doubtful that a public school teacher could teach that science was true while, at the same time maintaining that it was in conflict with most religions, since that which is in conflict with the truth is, necessarily, false.
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