Georgia's Cobb County school system must immediately remove stickers from science textbooks that say evolution is a ``theory, not a fact,'' because a federal judge ruled the disclaimers were unconstitutional.
Judge Clarence Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia today said the stickers violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Cobb County School Board inappropriately used taxpayer money to ``aid the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists,'' Cooper said in his judgment.
In 2002, the school board used money from the general fund to produce the stickers. The board then placed the labels in science textbooks that discussed the origin of life.
At least five parents filed a lawsuit challenging the stickers on the grounds that they violated the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the state of Georgia. A section of the state's constitution says that ``no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, cult, or religious denomination.''
Cooper also placed a permanent ban on the stickers being disseminated. Cobb County is north of Atlanta.