Tag Archives: Group: Discovery Institute

LA Times: Coppedge found his lawyer, William Becker, through the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian group that’s also helping fund Coppedge’s defense. Becker has also worked with the Discovery Institute, a prominent intelligent design group based in Seattle and a key force in helping portray Coppedge as a victim of religious bigotry. “There is a worldview war in this country,” Becker said in an interview. “There’s a battle between people who think religious people are trying to disrupt the integrity of the scientific method and those who know we’re not.”

Katherine Stewart at The Guardian: You can learn a lot about a policy idea by seeing who its friends are. Advocates of voucher programs include the activist organizations of the religious right, such as the Alliance Defense Fund, Focus on the Family, and the pro-creationism Discovery Institute.

San Gabriel Valley Tribune: An attorney for David Coppedge said his client was subjected to “stubborn and complete intolerance” of his beliefs while working for JPL. It was that attitude which hastened Coppedge’s firing, attorney William J. Becker, Jr. argued in a month-long trial that pitted science and religion in a way that was sometimes reminiscent of the 1920s Scopes Monkey Trial . . . Becker is an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian group. Josh Youngkin, program officer in law and policy at Discovery Institute, which advocates from intelligent design and creation science, is assisting with the case of Coppedge’s behalf.

Judge Sends NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to Jury Trial for Firing Employee… — LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire: Coppedge is represented by William J. Becker, Jr. of The Becker Law Firm, who was supported in the case by Alliance Defense Fund. The case number is BC435600.

LifeNews: “The Discovery Institute played host to a discussion of what it means to be human as a prelude to the 79th annual educational conference in Seattle for the Catholic Medical Association.” Event site.

Casey Luskin writes at the Discovery Institute: “So the ACLU opposes advocating ID in public schools (because supposedly it’s religion), but would endorse attacking ID by discussing “flaws or weaknesses in intelligent design” in public schools. Using their own phraseology, they would support teaching ‘flaws or weaknesses’ of a ‘specific religious viewpoint.’ Is that legal? It’s certainly quite hypocritical for a group that claims to uphold the separation of church and state. To quote a law review article I recently published on this very point: “[Jurists] cannot treat these viewpoints like religion in order to strike down their advocacy, but then treat them like science … when they are being critiqued in order to sanction their disapproval. Either a viewpoint is religious and thereby unconstitutional to advocate as correct or critique as false in public schools, or it is scientific and fair game for both advocacy and critique in public schools.’”

Religion Clause Blog: “According to a release issued yesterday by the Discovery Institute, an employee at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has filed suit in a California state court claiming religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation; wrongful demotion; and infringement of free speech rights . . .”

One News Now: “A new Zogby poll shows that a majority of Americans support intelligent design. According to the poll, only 33 percent stated that they believe in Darwinian evolution, while 52 percent stated they believe life was guided by intelligent design.”

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