Friday, March 24, 2006
Threats of Violence Against Dover Judge Prompt US Marshalls Office to Provide Protection
In the weeks after Judge John Jones issued his ruling that teaching intelligent design in Pennsylvania public schools is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state, proponents of creationism and intelligent design bombarded his office with threatening e-mails.
The nature of the threats made in many of those e-mails concerned the U.S. Marshalls Office enough that in the week before Christmas, marshals were assigned to watch over Jones and his family, according to the York Daily Record.
Jones spoke out publicly about threats made against him and his family, after death threats were made against of Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O'Connor, and John Paul Stevens. Jones said:
After Jones issued his decision, the Discovery Institute dubbed him "an activist judge." The intelligent design think-tank just published a book Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision in a further attempt to use right-wing code words to brand Jones as an activist judge, and his decision as illegitimate.
How long will it be before the intemperate language employed by the Discovery Institute and other right-wing zealots succeeds in producing the creationist or intelligent design movement's very own Eric Rudolph or Timothy McVeigh?
The York Daily Record article, a must read, in our opinion, is here. A New York Times report from Sunday of a speech by Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the death threats can be found here.
The nature of the threats made in many of those e-mails concerned the U.S. Marshalls Office enough that in the week before Christmas, marshals were assigned to watch over Jones and his family, according to the York Daily Record.
Jones spoke out publicly about threats made against him and his family, after death threats were made against of Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O'Connor, and John Paul Stevens. Jones said:
"There is an element here that is acting like it is open season on judges," Jones said.
"It saddens me that it's come to the point, where we're talking about what ought to be an honest disagreement, then you heighten it to something that is darker and much more disturbing."
After Jones issued his decision, the Discovery Institute dubbed him "an activist judge." The intelligent design think-tank just published a book Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision in a further attempt to use right-wing code words to brand Jones as an activist judge, and his decision as illegitimate.
How long will it be before the intemperate language employed by the Discovery Institute and other right-wing zealots succeeds in producing the creationist or intelligent design movement's very own Eric Rudolph or Timothy McVeigh?
The York Daily Record article, a must read, in our opinion, is here. A New York Times report from Sunday of a speech by Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the death threats can be found here.
