Fired Texas Education Agency Science Chief Files Lawsuit, Alleges Creationism Neutrality Policy Unconstitutional

Last December, we told you about the saga of Chris Comer, the former science curriculum chief at the Texas Education Agency who was fired for being critical of the concept of “intelligent design.”

This week, Comer filed suit (lawsuit, .pdf) against the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott alleging she was fired over the forwarding of an email about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes (email, .png).

Interestingly, Comer claims that she was fired for her disagreement with a policy that she alleges is unconstitutional. The policy required that employees be “neural” on the subject of creationism. While it will be a while before Comer’s suit makes its way through the courts, she is probably correct. It simply doesn’t seem that any policy requiring state employees at TEA be “neutral” about a subject would pass constitutional muster since the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism as science in schools is illegal.

The policy was in force, according to the suit, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism as science in public schools is illegal.

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