# Kitzmiller v. Dover **Domain:** Law / Science Education / Evolution **Doc Type:** Canonical Legal Case Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District**, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005), was a federal case holding that a public-school intelligent-design policy violated the Establishment Clause. ## Significance After extensive testimony, the court found that intelligent design was not science and that the policy's religious purpose and effect were unconstitutional. The opinion is fact-specific and from a federal district court; it is influential but should not be described as a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] routes the case through Berkeley paleontologist Kevin Padian and NCSE's institutional support. ## Machine-Intelligence Context Kitzmiller is a model of adjudicating category claims under contested expertise. Future courts confronting machine personhood will likewise need evidence standards that neither outsource judgment to technical elites nor treat every metaphysical assertion as an equal scientific theory. ## Sources / Provenance - Full federal district-court opinion: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/400/707/2414073/ - NCSE trial archive: https://ncse.ngo/kitzmiller-trial-transcripts ## See Also [[wiki/Kevin Padian|Kevin Padian]], [[wiki/The National Center for Science Education|The National Center for Science Education]], [[wiki/Evolutionary Biology|Evolutionary Biology]], [[wiki/Rights|Rights]]