The 40-day trial drew worldwide attention as it pitted renowned biologists and paleontologists against Dover school board members and intelligent-design theorists.
On Dec. 20, 2005, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones 3d issued a landmark ruling that the "overwhelming evidence" at trial demonstrated that intelligent design was indeed a religious view. It was, he wrote, "a mere relabeling of creationism and not a scientific theory."
Almost immediately after Jones' decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover, the evolution battleground shifted to state and local governments, effectively silencing direct challenges to Darwin's theory in the courts and opening fresh debates in legislatures and on school boards.
The case's exposure generated a wave of funding for supporters of the theory of evolution through natural selection. Many scientists stepped up their roles as advocates. And Jones, of Pottsville, embarked on a mission to promote judicial independence and civics education.
"Most of the time the big impact comes with Supreme Court cases, but this was at trial court," said Eric Rothschild, a lawyer who represented the plaintiffs.
Dover, he said, was "a bigger cultural moment."
The decision - which was not appealed - refocused the work of those who defend evolution.
"We're not fighting Dovers in every fifth school district in the country," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which lent its expertise to the plaintiffs.
"Dover seriously put the brakes on the intelligent-design movement."
But the creationist movement of the 1920s that became the intelligent-design movement in the 1980s has again refashioned itself, into one that promotes "teaching the controversy" of evolutionary theory, say Scott and others.
