Fed appeals court reverses ruling against teacher who called creationism superstitious nonsense

[alp227]

"Court: Teacher can't be sued over anti-Christian remarks" by Fermin Leal, Orange County Register

A federal appeals court on Friday tossed out a lower court’s ruling that Capistrano Valley High School teacher James Corbett violated a student’s constitutional rights by making comments disparaging to religion, saying Corbett could not have known he might be breaking the law.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said laws regarding what a teacher can and cannot say about religion are insufficiently clear to indicate whether Corbett violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which courts have interpreted as prohibiting government officials from displaying religious hostility.

"Nothing put Corbett on notice that his statements might violate the Establishment Clause. More to the point, we are aware of no prior case holding that a teacher violated the Establishment Clause by appearing critical of religion during class lectures, nor any case with sufficiently similar facts to give a teacher “fair warning” that such conduct was unlawful," the ruling states.

(...)

Corbett was sued in 2007 by then-sophomore Chad Farnan, who alleged 22 statements Corbett made during a fall Advanced Placement European history course were disparaging to Christians, including one in which the teacher called Creationism “religious, superstitious nonsense.”

full story: http://www.ocregister.com/news/corbett-313016-court-ruling.html

ruling: http://files.onset.freedom.com/ocregister/news/2011/08/Corbett_Appeal_Ruling.pdf

[Mz Pip]

1. Reason prevails.

The remark is not disparaging to Christians. It's disparaging to anti-science lunatics. Having a particular belief should not make you immune to criticism.

[alp227]

2. "remark" n/t

[alp227]

4. also here's what "disparaging" means

Disparaging: "(Followers of a religion) are stupid"
Criticism: "(Element of a religion) is bad because (evidence-based reason)"

[annabanana]

3. So it turns out the theacher has freedom of speech?

What a relief.

[rpannier]

5. I would be curious how many of these Christians who feel disparaged are okay with teachers making

anti-Muslim statement?

[RKP5637]

6. Excellent question, I bet most would be happy with anti-Muslim statements, and

many other anti-xxxx statements, bigots that they are.

[Angry Dragon]

7. 'interpreted as prohibiting government officials'

Some people are considering teachers as government officials??
What am I missing here??

[alp227]

8. teachers hired by state-run public schools

acting in capacity of government that administers the public schools

[Angry Dragon]

9. I understand the concept, find the choice of words very disturbing

are all government employees considered government officials??
How can the government go around and union bust??
Is a government janitor a government official??

If teachers are government officials then I find a great deal of problem
with other government officials going around and taking rights away from
other government officials.........

I do not think the majority of the people think of teachers as government officials

[alp227]

10. well think about why the Sup. Ct. ruled against teacher-led prayer in public schools

in Engel v. Vitale.

[Angry Dragon]

11. I did go to your link and read the page

and it talks about State officials composing the prayer and requiring
teachers to recite it

I did not see anything in there showing that teachers
had any say in the matter.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. because the statutes are vague

you can say anything NEGATIVE about religion if you want...effectively calling its adherents idiots. nice.

sP