can Americans sue? You bet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're suing RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Patfromch asked:

Is it possible to file suit against a community School Board or the Education board on state level for violating the seperation of Church and State (which I think is noted in your Constitution)?

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Great Question!

When the First Amendment to the Constitution says

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...

it doesn't just mean the US federal Congress. It means Congress AND every other federal, state or local government or government-sponsored or taxpayer-subsidized entity or activity.

(But if, for example, a religious school, a Catholic school or Jewish school or Baptist school, doesn't take a single dime of government funds, they can teach whatever they like, and no government agency or judge can make them stop.)

And it doesn't just mean nobody can pass or enforce a religion-friendly Law. It also means no government entity can do anything that smells too heavily of religion (like, for example, teach Creationism in a public tax-supported school).

Notice I said Creationism. The US Supreme Court already ruled a few years ago that Creationism smells too heavily of Religion. (Specifically, it smells like Christianity.)

That's why the Creationism Crowd invented this new "scientific theory": Intelligent Design. Ultimately, its fundamental principle is that if anybody sues, no judge will be able to find any Religious Foundation in it.

Can you sue your school for teaching Intelligent Design?

You bet! Americans can sue Anybody over Anything! We're Sue-Happy! And when one of us says, "That's it! I'm pissed off! I'm suing!" we have many many many many helpful Lawyers (advocat seems to be the Euro mot) to help us sue.

But once you and your helpful Lawyer sue ... can you WIN?

Which brings us Right Smack Dab to the court case happening Right Smack Now in Dover, Pennsylvania, whose public school board voted to teach Intelligent Design to its biology and science students. About a dozen parents of Dover students did just what you advised: They sued the Dover School Board. The witnesses are testifying in court right now.

You wanted to know a few months ago why the US government and voters are a little screwy the last few years.

One reason is a Very Unusual Kind of Political/Social Weather that has swept over a lot of America during the last ten years. One old nickname for these parts is The Bible Belt, but more recently the buzzword is "The Red States," where Red is the map color for states that regularly and reliably vote for The Republican Party. Republicans can be nice people, many of my sweetest neighbors are Republicans. But the Bush wing of the Republican Party are not reasonable, rational, sweet or nice -- and if the US COnstitution gets in the way of Things They Want, they use the Bill of Rights as toilet paper.

If I were Swiss, and I smelled this new kind of social/political Weather, it would probably smell a lot like Jean Chauvin du Geneve.

You want to know more about this? Give me a few hours, I have to go to the dentist.