Making Lemonade: a new approach to evaluating evolution disclaimers under the establishment clause

Arguing that current Establishment Clause doctrine is unable to handle evolution disclaimers, the history of the evolution debate is traced, development of the Establishment Clause doctrine in the context of public school instruction on human origins is addressed, and a more comprehensive approach for assessing the new generation of facially neutral evolution disclaimers under the Establishment Clause is suggested. Attention is given to the recent focus on disclaimers as the preferred way to fight evolution instruction and the courts' creation and subsequent departure from the standard Establishment Clause doctrine set in Lemon v. Kurtzman.