You may remember our post about the Orwellian Evolution Lawsuit filed by a fundamentalist Christian schoolteacher in California, Jeanne Caldwell, who claimed that the Understanding Evolution website of the UC Museum of Paleontology violated the constitutional separation of church and state, because it tried to promote reconciliation between science and religion.

Reconciliation between science and religion? That will never do! Sue them! Shut them down! Infidels!

Well, today the Supreme Court shot this absurd lawsuit down in flames.

On March 23, 2009, the Supreme Court denied certiorari without comment to Caldwell v. Caldwell, which challenged the constitutionality of the Understanding Evolution website — a joint project of the University of California Museum of Paleontology and the National Center for Science Education. The San Francisco Chronicle (March 23, 2009) reports, “One page on Cal’s 840-page ‘Understanding Evolution’ web site says Darwinism can be compatible with religion. The four-year-old suit by Jeanne Caldwell said the government-funded web site contradicts her religious belief about the incompatibility of religion and Darwinism and amounts to a state position on religious doctrine that violates the Constitutional separation of church and state.”

Caldwell filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in 2005. But her suit was dismissed in 2006 because she failed to allege that she had federal taxpayer standing, failed to sufficiently allege state taxpayer standing, and failed to establish that she suffered a concrete “injury in fact.” When she appealed the decision, the appellate court’s decision concluded, “Accordingly, we believe there is too slight a connection between Caldwell’s generalized grievance, and the government conduct about which she complains, to sustain her standing to proceed.” Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case, a lawyer for the University of California told the Chronicle, “We believe the lower court rulings were correct, and we’re glad this ends the matter.”

Jeanne Caldwell was represented by Kevin T. Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute and her husband Larry Caldwell.

Meanwhile, the UC Museum of Paleontology has launched an excellent new site called Understanding Science. Check it out.

(Hat tip: Sharmuta.)