Freshwater: Board’s Brief in Response Filed With SCOTUS
The Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Board of Education has filed its Brief in Opposition to Freshwater’s petition for a writ of certiori with the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS). Recall that Freshwater asked SCOTUS to overturn his firing on the ground that it violated his First Amendment rights, and that prohibiting his teaching the “scientific strengths and weaknesse of biological evolution” also violates the First Amendment. I haven’t found an online version of the Brief in Rersponse yet (the Court’s docket is here, so I’ll make a few remarks on what I found most interesting.
More below the fold
The Board’s response focuses on two main issues, Freshwater’s insubordination and his exposure of the Board to legal risk by teaching creationism. It also argues that Freshwater’s petition rests on disputed factual grounds rather than any Consititutional issue, and those factual grounds were hashed out in multiple lower venues-the administrative hearing, the county Court of Common Pleas, the state Court of Appeals, and the Ohio Supreme Court, and at each level were found to support Freshwater’s termination. It claims that Freshwater’s academic freedom argument is invalid. Finally, it argues, SCOTUS does not actually have jurisdiction. Freshwater’s argument rests on claims of disputed facts, not on any Constitutional issue, and is thus not in the purview of SCOTUS. That he is displeased with the various lower courts’ factual findings is not a valid reason for SCOTUS review:
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