Expert Witness for Plaintiffs In Encinitas Yoga Trial Responds to Judge's Decision

When Judge John Meyer ruled last week that the Encinitas Union School District was not teaching religion in its student yoga classes, he did so by evaluating weeks of evidence and testimony – including that of Candy Gunther Brown, PhD, a religious studies professor at Indiana University. 

Brown, the expert witness for the plaintiffs in the case, argued that yoga, especially the form of Ashtanga yoga being taught in the schools was overtly religious. But Meyer seemed to discount Brown's testimony altogether, saying Brown "is on a mission against Ashtanga yoga."

"A lot of her testimony is based on opinions and some research done to fulfill her goal of eliminating yoga from any school, period," he said. 

Brown, in kind, responded to the judge's decision last week by writing an Op-Ed piece, published in the Huffington Post. 

In her response, Brown called Meyer's decision "confusing," given that Meyer accepted and admitted that the practice of yoga is, in fact, religious. Brown also wrote that despite Meyer saying that she was "eminently qualified," and "perhaps the most knowledgeable expert he had ever had in his court," his calling her testimony biased was also puzzling. 

"I walk away from this trial genuinely bemused at the judge's about-faces in reaching his decision," Brown wrote. "All but the last 15 minutes of his lengthy decision pointed toward a finding that yoga is religious and therefore does not belong in public schools. Instead, the judge found that yoga is religious, and should be taught to public school children anyway. That is a strange decision."

Read more of Brown's piece in The Huffington Post.