In May of 2009, a federal judge ruled a California high school teacher had violated the First Amendment Establishment Clause of the Constitution when the teacher referred to Creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense” during a fall 2007 classroom lecture. When the judge ruled in favor of the student who sued, the judge made the decision to award the attorney’s fees and court costs to the teacher, making the student liable for those costs.

Today, a federal judge ruled denying the $391,150 in attorneys’ fees and court-related costs to the defense team:

U.S. District Court Judge James Selna said in an eight-page ruling that although the Capistrano Unified School District was not liable for Corbett’s actions, Capistrano was not eligible to recover any attorneys’ fees because student Chad Farnan’s lawsuit against the school district was not simply “a baseless, vexatious claim,” as Corbett’s attorneys had argued.

“C.F. (Chad Farnan) set out to prove a constitutional violation, and he did,” Selna said in his ruling. “The vagaries of the law in this area, from which Corbett benefitted, do not undermine the substantive validity of C.F.’s establishment clause claim, nor do they render his position frivolous.”

Judge denies awarding $391,150 to teacher’s defense team

One Response to “California High School Teacher’s Creationism Slam Violated Student’s First Amendment Right”

1. Maria Rothstein says:

   09/18/2010 at 11:46

   Awesome! I was searching for something like this all day. I really wish that people would write more about this. Greatly appreciated

   [Reply]