2025 RationalWiki 'Oregon Plan' Fundraiser

There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity.

Fighting pseudoscience isn't free.
We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with PayPal Logo.png!
Donations so far: $5273.29Goal: $10000

William Brevard Hand

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Hand — he wasn't a Catholic priest but he cosplayed as one
Going One God Further
Atheism
Icon atheism.svg
Key Concepts
Articles to not believe in
Notable heathens

William Brevard Hand (January 18, 1924–September 6, 2008) was a United States federal judge in on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Hand was nominated by President Richard Nixon on 1971, to a seat vacated by Daniel H. Thomas.

Brevard Hand gained national attention when he issued a ruling that described secular humanism as a religion. The case involved a lawsuit against the Alabama school board claiming that history and social studies texts promoted secular humanism, and as such were in violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Hand's ruling removed 44 texts from classes across the state for a number of weeks until the case was overturned without comment by the Court of Appeals.[1][2] It appears that the case was brought in Hand's district after his public remarks after a school prayer case in Alabama in 1982.

References[edit]