Courtesy of Indiana State Senator Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn), we have a new definition of what it means for a law to be "unconstitutional".
Jump over the "Great Orange Spiral of Communism" for the full story.
Indystar.com reports that:
A bill that would have specifically allowed Indiana's public schools to teach creationism alongside evolution in science classes has been shelved by the leader of the Indiana House of Representatives.
The bill, originally introduced by the aforementioned Sen. Kruse, simply called for schools to teach "creation science" (an oxymoron if there ever was one) alongside evolution.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1987, in Edwards vs. Aguillard, that "creation science" was simply an attempt to dress us theology as science and, as such, that it was an impermissible attempt to breach the wall of Church/State separation. All attempts by states since that time to inject theological stories of creation into science classrooms in public schools have been doomed to failure.
But, wait! Sen. Kruse has a better idea. Instead of paying attention to how the Supreme Court actually did rule, decide what to do based on how they might have ruled.
Kruse said he will probably introduce the proposal again next year and that lawmakers shouldn't just rely on the Supreme Court's 1987 ruling on the teaching of creationism.
“We have five pretty decent Supreme Court members who have been ruling pretty conservative on a lot of different things and they might have had a different ruling,” Kruse said.
And there you have it--don't agree with how the Supreme Court ruled in a particular case? No problem--just pretend that they might have ruled differently, if only today's Court members were around back then.
Brilliant!
---------------------------------
Sen. Kruse's bold thinking doesn't end with this novel legal theory. He also has this to say about the validity of "newcomers" to the world of the natural sciences.
He called evolution a “Johnny come lately” theory that only became popular over the last century in the wake of Charles Darwin’s research while religious ideas about the origins of life have been around for eons.
Yes, Sen. Kruse, just like the germ theory of disease is a "Johnny come lately” theory, or the theory of gravity, or the theory of combustion.
After all, daemons were responsible for disease for the millennia of human existence, angels kept the moon, planets and stars in their positions in the sky, and phlogiston was a perfectly acceptable and ancient explanation for why things burn.
Want to guess which book Sen. Kruse would find acceptable as the sole textbook for science classes?