This week the ACLU announced that a settlement has been reached for the plaintiffs in Selman v. Cobb County, a Georgia court case challenging the constitutionality of placing stickers that describe evolution as "a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things" on science textbooks. Both FASEB and the National Center for Science Education have already lauded the news.
According to the settlement, signed on Tuesday, the Cobb County Board of Education and school district have agreed not only to desist from papering science textbooks with "any stickers, labels, stamps, inscriptions, or other warnings or disclaimers" similar to the 'theory, not fact' stickers, but also to refrain from other anti-evolution education activities.
Jeffrey Selman, the Cobb County parent and plaintiff leading the case, said in the ACLU statement that "the settlement brings to an end a long battle to keep our science classes free of political or religious agendas."
We here at Genome Technology are just glad to see that The Onion's satirical riff on Kansas outlawing evolution itself remains in the realm of hyperbole. At least for now.
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