Selman v. Cobb County School District, No. 05-10341 (11th Cir. May 25, 2006)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has vacated a lower court's decision that a Georgia school district's application of stickers to science textbooks cautioning about the scientific validity of the theory of evolution violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The appeals court has remanded the case to the district court to conduct new proceedings in order to fill gaps in the record of evidence. The Eleventh Circuit found that: (1) evidence that was presented in the district court was omitted from the record on appeal; (2) the parties were unable identify what evidence was omitted; and (3) the problems created by the evidentiary gaps are compounded because some of the district court's key findings are not supported by evidence in the record. The appellate court concluded that these gaps, along with the problematic nature of some of the district court's factual findings, precluded a proper review of the merits of the case. The difficulties, the court noted, are "particularly vexing in an Establishment Clause case because in this area of the law the devil is in the details."
The court pinpointed the lack of information about a parent letter and a citizens' petition as a particularly serious problem in the record. While the district court relied in large part on the fact that a letter and a 2,300-name petition were submitted to the school board and served as the impetus for the board's adoption of the sticker, the actual evidence regarding the existence of the letter and petition, their contents, and when they were submitted to the school board cast doubt on the lower court's finding. Although the burden is on the appealing party to ensure that the record on appeal is complete and failure to do so normally means that party loses the appeal, the Eleventh Circuit refused to impose that consequence for several reasons: (1) this appears to be a case less of unsupplied evidence than one of missing evidence; (2) the court could not find that the appellants were at fault for the missing evidence: (3) both sides had made diligent, good faith efforts to supply the evidence once the court brought the situation to their attention: (4) this is not a case in which, without the missing evidence, the appeals court had no reason to believe there is any error in the district court's findings; (5) because both parties are challenging rulings by the lower court, a complete and accurate record is essential to a full and fair consideration of their arguments; and (6) the issues raised in the case are ones of substantial public importance, which require resolution on the merits based on full and accurate facts without resort to mutual mistakes and misunderstandings about the evidence.
The Eleventh Circuit left to the lower court whether to conduct a new trial or merely flesh out the gaps in the fact-finding. However, it did provide the district court with a list of some of the factual issues that need to be addressed. The court also made clear that it was making no rulings on any of the legal issues arising from the facts.
Selman v. Cobb County School District, No. 05-10341 (11th Cir. May 25, 2006)
[Link to full opinion][
Editor's Note: A summary of the district court's opinion is available below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Selman v. Cobb County School District]