High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Below are summaries of key documents from Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the first direct challenge brought in United States federal courts against a public school district that required a statement to be read to 9th grade science students endorsing intelligent design as an explanation of the origin of life. The plaintiffs claimed that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and the school board policy thus violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The defense claimed that the statement mentioning intelligent design as a challenge to evolution does not violate the Establishment clause because it does not mention or promote religion in any way, that intelligent design is based on inferences from empirical observation, and that the mention of it can only enhance a child's science education by teaching critical thinking. On 20 December 2005, Judge John E. Jones III found in favor of the plaintiff and ruled that the teaching of intelligent design was unconstitutional.