Archive for Saturday, August 13, 2005
Scientist files complaint about lawyer
Evolution opponent has no license to practice law in Kansas
August 13, 2005
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Topeka — A Kansas University scientist on Friday filed complaints in two states against the attorney who helped devise anti-evolution instruction in public schools but is not licensed to practice law in Kansas.
Steve Case, an assistant research professor at KU, filed the grievances against John Calvert, a lawyer who is managing director of a Kansas-based organization that fights against the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Case was head of a committee of scientists that worked on public school science standards.
Calvert, of Lake Quivira, said the complaints were baseless.
“This is shoot the messenger so that the message is not heard,” Calvert said.
He said Case was trying to suppress “honest, rational, reasonable criticism of evolutionary theory.”
Calvert was instrumental in getting a conservative majority on the Kansas State Board of Education to approve science standards that have drawn international attention with their criticism of evolutionary theory. Those standards replaced proposed standards, written by Case’s committee of scientists, that placed evolution as the foundation of much of science.
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- Mirecki press release (.pdf)
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“John was using his status as a lawyer to try to intimidate and manipulate the process,” Case said.
Case recently discovered that during the months-long debate and fight over science standards, in which Calvert represented a minority group of scientists who criticized evolution, Calvert was not licensed to practice law in Kansas.
In fact, Calvert has never been licensed to practice law in Kansas. He is licensed to practice law in Missouri.
Yet, Case said, Calvert always held himself out as a lawyer during the four days of hearings in Topeka on the standards, and numerous memos, position papers and debate over the issue.
“This is about honesty, integrity and ethics,” Case said.
In Kansas, representing oneself as a licensed professional is a crime.
Case has filed complaints with the Kansas Supreme Court, Atty. Gen. Phill Kline and the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office. He also has filed a complaint with the Missouri Supreme Court.
Calvert said the hearings and proceedings before the board of education were not judicial proceedings in which he needed a Kansas license.
Case has said he doesn’t know if Calvert is right, but that legal officials should make the call.
All through the process of devising science standards, the conservative majority on the board changed the process, Case said.
“I’m really tired of the lack of clarity,” he said.
But Case conceded that even if a question arises about Calvert’s status in the completed debate, that probably won’t affect the science standards.
The state board has advanced the standards on a 6-4 vote with possible final action on them this fall.
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13 August 2005 at 12:58 p.m.
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John1945 (Anonymous) says…
Yet more of the crypto-Nazi antics of the “scientific” community to silence their critics. Quite frankly, if this was about “honesty, integrity and ethics” Case and his gossipy cronies would be in jail.
Rather than come into the hearings and make their case, these cowards lurked about in the hallways, learing at their opponents and accosting reporters trying to get that sympathetic audience to print what they didn't have the courage to present inside the hearings.
They're a disgrace. No wonder KU ranks so low in the list of academic programs. With clowns like Case and his colleagues on the faculty it will always be a third rate institution.
13 August 2005 at 3:35 p.m.
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John1945 (Anonymous) says…
Calvert is an attorney of great distinction. Do a google search on ol' Pedro Iregonegaray to find out the kind of slimy shyster Case and his cronies used and then take a look at what his latest case is. Golly, is that an ambulance I hear?
13 August 2005 at 3:45 p.m.
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John1945 (Anonymous) says…
As a followup, use Pedro's name and the words “chemical burn” (or perhaps “buttocks”)or “transexual” to locate some of Pedro's other significant legal work.
As I said, Calvert is one of the few in that horrid profession to be able to lay any claim to honesty, integrity and ethics. Unfortunately, Pedro seems to be the (pathetic) norm.
13 August 2005 at 6:26 p.m.
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Fangorn (Anonymous) says…
You know, I just get so tired of the “scientific community” fighting so hard to ensure that the scrutiny applied to other theories never gets anywhere near evolution. If the case for Darwin's theory is so slam-dunk as they would have us believe, why worry about a little criticism? And you're exactly right, Arminius. The hyperbole of claiming evolution was “banned” in Kansas excludes these folks from any discussion of ethics and integrity.
13 August 2005 at 11:50 p.m.
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John1945 (Anonymous) says…
Golly isn't it wonderful seeing who came out to defend Darwin and our “scientific” community? Thanks Joker. Truly an empirical example of the value of our educational dollar.
14 August 2005 at 7:11 a.m.
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Barclay (Anonymous) says…
A CNN Poll by Aaron Brown discovered 64% of Americans believe in creationism. 22% hold to evolution. 10% embrace intelligent design. May we never choose curriculum based on polls, but tell me, what are the evolutionists really afraid of? Show me one evolutionary transitional form. What about the mastedon tusk found buried seventeen feet below a road bed in Wichita last week? There was no lava above it. What cataclysm could have buried anything that deep? Maybe a flood. Wonder what book talks about that?