Bill of rights heroes.

So here I sit in the capital of the Great State, working on a book about some heroes I have met over the years who make the Bill of Rights more than just dead words on old parchment.

One group of heroes resides in the rural corner of Pennsylvania known as Pennsatucky. They took on the overzealous Christian members of the Dover, PA, Board of Education, who had decided the evolution chapter in their high school biology textbook was "laced with Darwinism." (They had no complaint about Newtonism in the physics text.)

The biblical literalists on the Dover board went out and found a supplementary biology textbook published by creationists in Fort Worth. (Yes, that's Fort Worth, Texas.) Of Pandas and People advanced the utterly unscientific notion that evolution never happened (after all, it's only a theory). "Forms of life," argued one designer on the witness stand, "began abruptly through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact, fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, and wings."

Everyone in Dover seemed to have gone round the bend. The superintendent suggested that students also be taught that space aliens might have brought life to our planet, to balance intelligent design and evolution. He also supported a board policy that required all students to listen to a faith-based disclaimer before studying biology. And the board president set his sights on a new American history curriculum, another Texas product, which emphasizes God's active role in the American Revolution--baptizing after the fact all our Founding Fathers.

Then Jessica Kitzmiller's mama said no. As did Barrie and Fred Callahan. As did Casey and Jeff Brown, and other parents and taxpayers living in the hardscrabble little town of Dover. They called Witold Walczak of the Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU. Walczak had already been contacted by Dover high school teachers, recognized the perfect mix of fact and law and brought suit. He brought in Eric Rothschild of the Philadelphia offices of Pepper Hamilton, along with lawyers for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

While the plaintiffs were attacked as atheists and Walczak and the other attorneys described as outside agitators bringing trouble to River City, they set out to put an end to the teaching of "intelligent design." They were up against local public opinion, the Dover school board, and the Thomas More Law Center, which describes itself as the "sword and shield of people of faith ... defending the religious freedom of Christians."

Now I'm a devout believer in postvictory gloating, particularly when it involves upholding our Bill of Rights. So let us gloat. After six weeks of trial and a month of deliberation, Judge John E. Jones III handed down a sweeping opinion. He ruled the teaching of intelligent design unconstitutional and the disclaimer read to biology students illegal. It particularly bothered the judge, who was appointed by George W., that several devout Christians on the Dover board, "who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and time again lie to cover their tracks and the real purpose behind the ID Policy." (Two lied under oath, though they did not swear on the Bible, which might have made a difference.)

Since he handed down his opinion a year ago, binding only in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, not a single school board in the nation has succeeded in adopting intelligent design for its biology curriculum. And the piece de resistance, as ACLUers in Texas say: A week before Christmas, the school board of Cobb County, Georgia, which had been placing anti-evolution stickers on biology textbooks, capitulated. Settling a lawsuit filed by parents of some brave students in the district, the school board agreed to remove their anti-evolution stickers from biology textbooks and to refrain from any other interference with the teaching of biology in the future.

Who says we can't be cheerful and joyous?

Molly Ivins writes in this space every month. Her latest book is "Who Let the Dogs In?"