Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District

229 F.R.D. 463, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14998, 2005 WL 1791599
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 27, 2005
DocketNo. 04cv2688
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 229 F.R.D. 463 (Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 229 F.R.D. 463, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14998, 2005 WL 1791599 (M.D. Pa. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JONES, District Judge.

THE BACKGROUND OF THIS ORDER IS AS FOLLOWS:

Pending before the Court is a Motion to Intervene (“the Motion”) (doc. 61) filed by the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (“FTE” or “Applicants”) (doc. 61) on May 23, 2005. We will deny the Motion for the reasons that follow.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND:

The procedural chronology of this case has been set forth in prior orders and is well known to the parties. The following brief recitation of that history is sufficient for purposes of this Court’s review of the pending Motion.

On December 14, 2004, Plaintiffs filed a complaint against Defendants, Dover Area School District and Dover Area School District Board of Directors (collectively “Defendants” or “DASD”), in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. (See Rec. Doc. 1). On January 6, 2005, Defendants filed an answer in the above-captioned case.

In their complaint, Plaintiffs assert that Defendants’ October 18, 2004 resolution and November 19, 2004 press release (collectively, “the Policy”) facially and as applied violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. (See Cmplt. at Count One). In addition, Plaintiffs state that Defendants’ Policy violates Art. 1, § 3 and Art. Ill, §§ 15 & 29 [465]*465of the Pennsylvania Constitution facially and as applied. (See id. at Count Two).

The Applicant is a non-profit corporation formed in 1980, which publishes and owns the intellectual property rights of the book Of Pandas and People (“Pandas ”) and the draft text of The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems (“The Design of Life ”). (See App. to Intervene 1HI1-2).

On May 23, 2005, Applicant filed the instant Motion. The Motion has been briefed by the parties. On July 14, 2005, the Court held a hearing on the pending Motion in which FTE’s President, Jon A. Buell (“Buell”) testified before the Court. The Motion is therefore ripe for disposition.

STANDARD OF REVIEW:

The applicable standards for adjudicating a motion to intervene will be fully set forth within the analysis of the pending Motion.

DISCUSSION:

A. MOTION TO INTERVENE

As we previously explained, Applicant is a non-profit corporation which publishes and owns the intellectual property rights of Pandas and the draft text of The Design of Life. The Applicant argues that it intends to market its textbooks to public schools within the Middle District of Pennsylvania and that a ruling by this Court finding that intelligent design theory (“IDT”) is religious would destroy FTE’s ability to market its textbooks within this district. (See Mot. Intervene H20). Moreover, FTE asserts that such a ruling would affect FTE’s ability to market its textbooks to any public school in the United States. The Applicant seeks to intervene because its pecuniary interest in the outcome of the litigation is real and will directly affect the viability of FTE. Id.

As FTE submits, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide for two types of intervention: intervention as of right and permissive intervention. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 24. We will discuss the two types of intervention in turn.

1. Intervention as of Right

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24 provides, in pertinent part:

Intervention as of Right. Upon timely application anyone shall be permitted to intervene in an action: (2) when the applicant claims an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action and the applicant is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practicable matter impair or impede the applicant’s ability to protect that interest, unless the applicant’s interest is adequately represented by existing parties.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a). As we explained in our March 10, 2005 Order disposing of an unrelated attempt by parties to intervene in this case, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has instructed that Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a) entitles an applicant to intervene if the applicant establishes that all prongs of the following four-part test are satisfied: (1) the application for intervention is timely; (2) the applicant has a sufficient interest in the litigation; (3) the interest may be affected or impaired, as a practical matter by the disposition of the action; and (4) the interest is not adequately represented by an existing party in the litigation. Kitzmiller v. Dover Area Sch. Dist, 04-CV-2688, 2005 WL 578974 (M.D.Pa.2005); see also Brody v. Spang, 957 F.2d 1108, 1115 (3d Cir.1992); Harris v. Pernsley, 820 F.2d 592, 597 (3d Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 947, 108 S.Ct. 336, 98 L.Ed.2d 363 (1987). The applicant carries the burden of proving all four parts of the test under Fed.R.Civ.P. 24. See United States v. Alcan Aluminum, 25 F.3d 1174 n. 9 (3d Cir.1994).

We will now proceed to apply each prong of the aforementioned intervention as of right test to the Applicant’s Motion.

a. Timeliness of Intervention Application

The first prong of the intervention as of right test concerns the timeliness of the intervention application. This prong is particularly significant as it relates to the case at bar. FTE argues that its Application to Intervene is timely as it did not learn that this case would affect its rights until after Plaintiffs served FTE and its President,

[466]*466Buell, with subpoenas on April 28, 2005. (See Applicants’ Br. Supp. Mot. Intervene at 7; see also Buell Aff. If 7). In that vein, FTE contends that prior to April 28, 2005, Buell had not reviewed or even seen Plaintiffs complaint or any other papers filed in the above-captioned case. Rather, FTE maintains that Buell had only a general awareness of this litigation through media reports. Id. at 8; see also Buell Aff. U 6. FTE states that the discovery subpoenas prompted it and Buell to learn the specifics of Plaintiffs’ claims and that subsequent to the discovery subpoenas, Buell retained legal counsel to protect FTE’s interests. On May 9, 2005, FTE and Buell filed a Motion for Protective Order and/or to Quash Subpoenas and supporting brief in federal court in Texas. FTE asserts that during the same period, Buell took another step to protect FTE’s interests by advising William A. Dembski (“Dembski”), one of Defendants’ former experts, the editor and one of the authors who contracted with FTE to write The Design of Life,

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Bluebook (online)
229 F.R.D. 463, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14998, 2005 WL 1791599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kitzmiller-v-dover-area-school-district-pamd-2005.