Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. (400 F. Supp. 2d 707, Docket No. 4cv2688) was the first direct challenge brought in the
United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of
intelligent design. In October 2004, the
Dover Area School District of
York County, Pennsylvania, changed its
biology teaching curriculum to require that intelligent design be presented as an alternative to
evolution theory, and that
Of Pandas and People, a textbook advocating intelligent design, was to be used as a reference book. The prominence of this textbook during the trial was such that the case is sometimes referred to as the
Dover Panda Trial, a name which deliberately recalls the infamous
Scopes Monkey Trial in
Tennessee, 80 years earlier. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of
creationism, and that the school board policy violated the
Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The judge's decision sparked considerable response from both supporters and critics.