11th Circuit Hard On Evolution-Sticker Appellants In Oral Arguments

A panel of federal appellate judges were particularly harsh during oral arguments in the 11th Circuit yesterday as they heard an appeal of a district court case that held unconstitutional the placing of evolution disclaimer stickers on biology textbooks in Cobb County, Georgia. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Judge Ed Carnes dominated much of the 40-minute arguments by tearing apart sections of district Judge Clarence Cooper's January ruling. At the end of the arguments, Carnes took the highly unusual step of calling Atlanta lawyer Jeffrey Bramlett, who argued on behalf of five parents who sued the school board, back up to the podium and suggested he may have mislead the Court of Appeals in his legal brief filed with the court. The other judges on the panel were also critical of the lower court opinion. Judge Bill Pryor said that Cooper relied on facts that "are just contradicted by the record." Some of the debate turned on the relationship in time of the school board's decision to adopt the stickers and a petition from 2,300 individuals complaining about the district's science textbooks.