Posted by
Marcy Muser on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:56:29 PM
In
a fascinating report released today by the Discovery Institute, David DeWolf and John West document the truth that Judge John E. Jones, the Pennsylvania judge who one year ago declared unconstitutional the reading of a statement about intelligent design in public school science classrooms, in fact copied the vast majority of his decision directly from an ACLU brief. When his decision was released, it was praised as an impressive display of judicial reasoning, based on careful research and analysis.
Unfortunately for the judge, further analysis of his decision has established conclusively that almost everything he said about whether intelligent design is science was copied from information provided him by the ACLU. Here is what the "Executive Summary" of DeWolf and West's report says:
In fact, 90.9% (or 5,458 words) of Judge Jones’ 6,004- word
section on intelligent design as science was taken virtually
verbatim from the ACLU’s proposed “Findings of Fact and
Conclusions of Law” submitted to Judge Jones nearly a
month before his ruling. Judge Jones even copied several
clearly erroneous factual claims made by the ACLU. The finding
that most of Judge Jones’ analysis of intelligent design was
apparently not the product of his own original deliberative activity
seriously undercuts the credibility of Judge Jones’ examination
of the scientific validity of intelligent design.
There is much more to the report, which you can read by clicking on the link above. But the point is clear: the "masterful" reasoning displayed by Judge Jones was copied, almost word-for-word, from the ACLU's opinion. So much for independent thinking!