Ordinary Aspirations Vs. Official Abuses, And the Promise of Plasticity in American Jurisprudence (The GOOD Book) (Book Review‪)‬

LAW, MUCH LIKE RELIGION, can inspire both the best and the worst in people. Most of us prefer to let others do the dirty work. But an intrepid few will occasionally break away from the pack to don the law like a crusader's cape or, perhaps, to wield it like a barbarian's sword--depending on one's perspective. Such a person might stand up in court to defend a cherished principle--the sacred civil edifice of public education, for instance. In The Devil In Dover: An Insider's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-Town America (The New Press, 2008), Lauri Lebo, a local reporter from now-infamous Dover, Pennsylvania, offers an accessible yet surprisingly reliable account of plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller's bizarre struggle against the apparently intractable board members of the Dover Area School District. Although never appealed, Kitzmiller might be the most important establishment clause case since 1987, when in Edwards v. Aguillard the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the teaching of creationism in public schools.