This is far more than we had anticipated. The Discoveroids — described in the Cast of Characters section of our Intro page — have been supporting David Coppedge in his allegedly wrongful termination case against Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is part of Caltech.
We expected them to post a rant or two about the final decision against Coppedge (see David Coppedge Trial: Final Order Issued), but we never expected anything like their latest post: Judge Lets NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab Off the Hook for Discrimination against Intelligent Design Proponent.
It’s no surprise that their post begins by describing the results from the Discoveroids’ point of view:
Despite clear evidence of discrimination presented at trial, a California Superior Court Judge has turned down an anti-discrimination claim filed against NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) by a former employee subjected to mistreatment after sharing his views on intelligent design (ID) with some of his co-workers.
[…]
According to evidence revealed during the case, JPL gives free rein to employees who attack intelligent design in the workplace, even as the lab singled out and punished Coppedge.
But after a few paragraphs describing the case solely from Coppedge’s side, with no hint that JPL-Caltech had anything to offer in its defense, they say this, with bold font added by us:
Youngkin [Joshua Youngkin, a Discoveroid lobbyist] called on Congress to make sure that this kind of egregious discrimination doesn’t happen again at a federally funded institution: “This case is part of a clear, longstanding nationwide pattern of illegal discrimination against proponents of intelligent design. Congress needs to make sure that the labs and other agencies that taxpayers fund through NASA don’t continue to trample on the viewpoint rights of scientists and other staff members. This is especially important now that the courts have failed to hold JPL accountable in the Coppedge case.”
There’s no mention of where or when or to whom Youngkin was speaking. But there’s no shortage of lunatics in Congress, and the Discoveroids undoubtedly have allies among them. Will they get some crazy congressman to introduce a bill protecting creationists who run around the workplace trying to evangelize their co-workers? It’s possible. Here’s one more quote from Youngkin:
“The scientific merits of intelligent design were never on trial in this lawsuit, but it’s a miscarriage of justice that the court failed to recognize that David Coppedge’s rights were grossly violated. Everyone who values the free and open exchange of ideas should be concerned,” said Youngkin. “Workers at taxpayer-funded science labs shouldn’t lose their jobs simply because they think nature displays evidence of intelligent design rather than a blind and undirected cause.”
According to the judge’s decision, that’s definitely not why Coppedge lost his job, but the Discoveroids will never acknowledge that. It’s scary to think that this mess could end up in Congress. Very scary. They’re involved in enough idiocy as it is. We’ll just have to watch what happens.
Copyright © 2013. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
They will have to get Faux News pushing it. That is the
key to getting anything going for them nationally. Faux has been
courting the Repubs great Cuban Hope lately. He would
definitely help out if asked.
But thank goodness, at least for a couple of years, the
Senate is in control by most of the saner and progressive pols.
Youngkin is the younger Luskin: Itty Bitty Gerbil.
Lots to learn to be a Big Fat Gerbil.
Yeeesh! Imagine Youngkin and Luskin and Klinkendoodle that the DI is the only place they can work. I mean, who else would hire them?
Pitiful.
The Dishonesty Institute and its liars have enough allies in state and federal government as well as religious right-wingers that they will make a noisy mess out of this. And yes, Faux News will be all over it. Expect to see people like Luskin and Becker on Bill “never tell the truth” O’Reilly’s show.
Congress and the american public in general have a lot of respect for JPL and NASA. The DI will have an uphill battle trying to convince lawmakers that the people at JPL are as bad as the DI insists they are. To get the kooks on board, they would have to convince them that JPL is a liberal elite organization, but conservatives feel as much ownership for NASA as do liberals. In fact, Obama was pilloried by the right when he tried to bring the NASA budget into control, and they promptly increased the budget beyond what he requested. In that climate, I don’t think the DI will have much traction.
In contrast, if this were a case involving a global warming denier at EPA, they would have an easy sell to the Bachman types in congress.
For this to work, one of the first problems the tooters have to overcome is there are no laws discriminating against whack-a-doodles in the workplace. If I went around pushing a flat earth agenda or an Atlantis agenda, I’d be ostracized and most likely terminated for 1) pushing my agenda instead of working, 2) being unable to cope with reality. The only way they could possibly have a leg to stand on is to admit they are a religious organization and then follow all the appropriate legal guidelines for established religions, but that would defeat the purpose of their wedgie.
Yeah, like the DI’s lone (probably part-time) lobbyist is going to make a big splash in D.C. and not be drowned out by the thousands and thousands of other lobbyists who have real money to throw around. The DI is just pnadering to its base. There is really nothing to see here, just move along.
Why would congress need to act? They heard his case, in the long format I might add. If Coppedge could have proven he was terminated because of his views and not lack of skills and normal downsizing he would have prevailed. I think congress should act so we can fire such people. After all he’s been using his association with CalTech and JPL to give his creationist view point credibility.
Legislation has been proposed in Texas to prevent state universities from “discriminating against” any professor or student who wants to study, do research (ha ha!) or promote “intelligent design” creationism. The proposal never made it out of committee last session and will undoubtedly fail again.
Oh, ironically, the only place where ID is being “promoted” in any way is at Baylor University which is private and, thus, exempt from such legislation. Baylor, itself, dumped Dembski (twice!) and put the clamp on Marks.
Who is Coppedge? And why should your congressman take notice?
A quick check using “Coppedge” in google search turned up 228,000 stories about him. And Coppedge’s tales of woe and tribulation have played out in public for over a year.
But google links to stories about Heisman Trophy winner Manti Te’o, who has been in the news just a couple of weeks: 592,000,000 links already.
Coppedge just isn’t going to get much notice by the Discovery Tutes friends in congress.