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LOS ANGELES, June 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — An amended complaint was filed Monday in a lawsuit against Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on behalf of an employee who claims he was demoted, silenced, harassed, and threatened with termination for discussing his beliefs about intelligent design with co-workers.  The California Institute of Technology operates JPL under a contract with NASA.

In March 2009, David Coppedge – who served as a high-level “team lead” technical specialist on JPL’s Cassini mission to Saturn since 2000 – was allegedly punished on the basis of “pushing [his] religion.”

According to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the public interest law firm that is handling the case, Coppedge’s supervisor, Gregory Chin, told him that co-workers had complained he was pushing his “religious” views by discussing intelligent design and offering them DVDs. Coppedge says he never held any discussions with anyone unwilling to talk to him.  Chin then allegedly said Coppedge would lose his job if he kept “pushing [his] religion,” ordered him not to discuss politics or religion with anyone in his office, and asserted that “intelligent design is religion.” 

According to Coppedge, he told Chin that he would comply but that he felt his constitutional rights were being violated.

The next month, officials at JPL gave Coppedge a written warning for his “unwelcome,” “harassing,” and “disruptive” activities.  The warning ordered him to refrain from such behavior or face further disciplinary action, including termination.  Coppedge’s requests for specific details regarding the allegations were denied.  A few days later, JPL demoted Coppedge.

From April through August 2009, Coppedge says he was given the runaround when attempting to use an “internal appeal process” to challenge the action taken against him.  In April 2010, about a year after JPL was placed on notice of a potential lawsuit and a Fair Employment and Housing Act claim, Coppedge was told that the written warning would be removed from his personnel file, but that he would not be restored to his team lead position, that offering DVDs on ID was inappropriate, and that he could not discuss ID with co-workers.

“Employees shouldn’t be threatened with termination and punished for sharing their opinion with willing co-workers just because the view being shared doesn’t fit what’s politically correct,” said ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco.  “Mr. Coppedge has always maintained that ID is a scientific theory.  Regardless, JPL has discriminated against him on the basis of what they deem is ‘religion.’  The only discussion allowed is what fits the agenda. Stray, and you are silenced and punished. It just doesn’t fit with JPL’s otherwise fine reputation in the industry.”

A spokesperson for JPL told LifeSiteNews.com that JPL has not yet received the lawsuit, and therefore does not yet have a statement to make about the case.