Back in Court

The California Science Center is being sued for its cancellation of a film screening, reports the Los Angeles Times. The suit, brought by the American Freedom Alliance, argues that the center violated both the First Amendment and a contract to rent the center's IMAX theater when the showing of the anti-evolution, intelligent design documentary "Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record" was canceled. Back in October, the AFA had planned to show both that film and a short IMAX movie, called "We are Born of Stars," that favors evolution. The AFA says the center caved to pressure from the Smithsonian and to complaints from local professors. Meanwhile, the center says the AFA violated its contract by issuing a news release that wasn't approved by the center and that, according to the LA Times, "wrongly implied that the California Science Center is 'a West Coast branch of the Smithsonian, and that the film showing is a Smithsonian event.'"