A settlement agreed to by the governor of Alabama and the Mobile County school board in a complex lawsuit could result in a ban on the teaching of “secular humanism” in the state’s classrooms.
The document outlining the terms of the settlement-which was signed by Gov. George C. Wallace’s legal advisor and the county board-declares that “humanism is a religion” and that its advancement in public-school textbooks violates the First Amendment.
The approval of those officials, if combined with that of the state board of education, would open the way for a federal district judge to order new standards and criteria for religious balance in the state’s textbook-selection procedures.
The judge in the case has suggested that he would also consider such subjects as evolution, Communism, and socialism as religions in such a review of balance.
The state board-which reportedly is divided on the issue-is scheduled to discuss the matter at its meeting this week.
The lawsuit stems from the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last spring in Wallace v. Jaffree. In that decision, the Court overturned a state law that permitted daily moments of silence in public schools for prayer or meditation. (See Education Week, June 12,1985.)
The current plaintiffs are a group of Mobile citizens who intervened in the Jaffree case on the side of the state and offered arguments before the Justices in favor of the law.
After the Court’s ruling, the case was remanded to U.S. District Judge Brevard Hand, who had upheld the constitutionality of the law in 1983. In a footnote to his decision, Judge Hand indicated that if he were overruled on the prayer issue, he would consider whether various doctrines, “such as evolution, socialism, Communism, [and] secular humanism,” were being taught in public schools in violation of the First Amendment.
When the case was returned to Judge Hand, he realigned the Mobile citizens as the plaintiffs in the case, which is now known as Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County. In addition to the Mobile County board, the Governor and the state board were aligned as defendants in the suit.
At Judge Hand’s invitation, the Smith group filed a 171-page memorandum with the court last October, seeking a court order barring “the unconstitutional advancement of the religion of Humanism ... [and the] unconstitutional inhibition of Christianity caused by the curriculum used in the Mobile County school system.”
Shortly after taking that step, the plaintiffs invited the defendants to approve a proposed consent decree that would settle the case by allowing the judge to approve new textbook-selection standards.
William A. Jackson, Governor Wallace’s legal advisor, signed the proposed settlement on his behalf last Nov. 7, but his action was not made public until late January. The Mobile County board approved the proposed settlement by a 3-to-2 vote on Feb. 26.
That act left the state board as the last remaining defendant standing in the way of a settlement. Charles Coody, the board’s legal advisor, could not be reached for comment last week.
Late last month, Judge Hand granted the request of a group of 12 Mobile parents to intervene in the case in opposition to the proposed new textbook-selection standards. Their legal expenses are being shared by the Alabama Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way, a Washington-based civil-liberties lobby.
According to legal observers, Judge Hand could approve the settlement over the objections of the second parents’ group. But by including them in the case, he has given them standing to appeal any such ruling.
