Fwd: Hinduism_environment Court rejects Motion against CAPEEM in textbook lawsuit-- major

[Guest guest]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

26 Mar 2008

 

Los Angeles, California

 

Judge denies Motion for Summary Judgment against CAPEEM

 

California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) scored

a major victory on Tuesday when Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr. of the United

States District Court of the Eastern District of California rejected the

defendants' motion to dismiss CAPEEM's lawsuit to correct inaccuracies in sixth

grade history textbooks. CAPEEM's complaint contends that the process to adopt

the textbooks discriminated against Hindus and that the textbooks indulge

in indoctrination of Abrahamic religions while using disparaging language

against Hinduism.

 

The motion for summary judgment asking for the dismissal of the lawsuit was

filed by the office of California's Attorney General on behalf of the officials

of the State Board of Education and the California Department of Education.

Judge Damrell rejected the claim that an earlier ruling in a lawsuit filed

in a state court by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) had definitively settled

the issues raised by CAPEEM in its lawsuit.

 

The judge pointed out that the ruling in the HAF case strengthened CAPEEM's

claim of discrimination against its members. Judge Damrell noted, " the superior

court found in favor of the HAF plaintiffs on their state APA claim; arguably,

this finding lends support to CAPEEM's claims in this case that defendants

conducted the adoption process in a manner that was discriminatory. & #xu201D;

 

The judge also agreed with CAPEEM's claim that the issues in the two cases were

different: " . . . Similarly, the superior court concluded the textbooks

at issue there did not violate the state standards for content, as promulgated

by defendants. This court could find defendants violated the Establishment

Clause without reaching a judgment that is inconsistent with that of the

superior court; this court could find that the underlying standards themselves

violate the Establishment Clause. & #xu201D;

 

Reacting to the judgment, Arvind Kumar, a director of CAPEEM said, " the

arguments in the Defendants' motion posed the biggest challenge to us so far and

we are happy to have won this victory. We can now focus our energies on our main

claims in the lawsuit. & #xu201D;

 

CAPEEM's attorneys Venkat Balasubramani and Michael Newdow expressed

satisfaction with the order. This was the third motion filed by the defendants

against

CAPEEM in attempts to seek summary dismissal of the lawsuit.

 

For more information contact:

 

Arvind Kumar (646) 594-4397

arvind

http://www.capeem.org

 

CAPEEM is a 501©(3) tax exempt organization with tax ID 56-2565521. If you do

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