The word freedom gets tossed around a lot. It seems like the mot-du-jour for anyone smart enough to realize manipulating people is as easy as telling them that such an important value might be taken away.

A few years ago, creationists wanted people to ‘tech the controversy’. That was their angle, and they had managed to make a few inroads in schools. After a devastating ruling in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, it was time for them to go on the offensive. That’s why they’ve decided the best way to push back is by invoking people’s sense of fairness and use the word ‘academic freedom’ as though they understand what that means.

The Governor of Louisiana, in his ‘infinite wisdom’, has helped pass a new bill that allows school to approve supplemental classroom materials to critique scientific theories they disagree with. In other words, religious creationists will bring in their intellectually disingenuous Intelligent Design into classrooms.

That means that if a school board is stupid enough to try and sneak their crap into biology classes, they open the door for possible litigation. Considering that the Dover trial cost over 2 million dollars in legal fees, you might be wondering what these idiots were thinking. It boils down to one thing: If you martyr small, ignorant school districts by feeding them to the courts, only to have them lose and become stifled in debt, you will create the illusion that government is out to take people’s freedom away. It will also look, to the uneducated many, as though science is deathly afraid of intelligent design.

Here’s my proposal to the ACLU, or any other group thinking it’s a good idea to sue the schools that will take this opportunity to try and teach their creationist garbage: go after the legislators instead. If you go after these tiny, ‘we don’t know what we are doing wrong’ school districts, you will only garner sympathy for their cause. You’ll also be regarded poorly for sending underfunded schools further into debt, likely decreasing the overall quality of their education. If you want to fight someone, fight the ringleaders, not the pawns.