Academic Freedom Wins In Cuccinelli Climate Case
Supreme Court Tosses Virginia Attorney General's Attack on UVA and Michael Mann
By Shawn Lawrence Otto | Mar 02, 2012 | Comments (17)
In a big win for academic freedom over the forces of creeping authoritarianism, the Virginia Supreme Court today sided with the University of Virginia in its fight against Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's investigation of former University of Virginia climate scientist Michael Mann.
Mann, who now works at Penn State, has been a target of climate change deniers for his famed "Hockey Stick" graph that shows the world's temperatures have risen sharply over the last 50 years.
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The court upheld an Albemarle Circuit Court ruling that set aside Cuccinelli's demands for Mann's emails and other documents related to grants Mann received to study climate change while at UVA.
Cuccinell had sought the information under the state's "Fraud Against Taxpayers Act," alleging that Mann might have committed a fraud against the taxpayers while at UVA by using what Cuccinelli claimed might have been manipulated climate change data in order to get federal grants. Cuccinelli has said he believes that climate change is a hoax, and has said academic freedom should not shield scientists from investigations into whether they might have broken a law.
But Cuccinelli's investigation was without a reasonable probable cause, and so amounted to a political witch hunt. Albemarle County Circuit Judge Paul Peatross ruled in August 2010 that Cuccinelli had failed to adequately state what Mann might have done wrong, and further that he lacked authority to investigate federal grants. Cuccinelli appealed to the state supreme court.
Cuccinelli had sought a broad application of the law's language, seeking to extend it to state agencies like UVA. But the supreme court disagreed with Cuccinelli's claim that the university can be considered a “person” subject to subpoena under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. “In sum, neither by express language nor by necessary implication does FATA provide the Attorney General with authority to issue CIDs to commonwealth agencies,” wrote supreme court justice Leroy F. Millette Jr., in the decision.
"The university should be commended for its courage in standing up to the attorney general to ensure Virginia will remain a safe place for scientific research, even when elected officials don’t like the results," said Michael Halpern of the Union of Concerned Scientists Scientific Integrity Program. “Academic institutions have the responsibility to protect their faculty’s ability to discover new things about our world without fearing harassment or political reprisals. Officials at research universities around the country should scrutinize this case and make sure they are prepared to respond appropriately to similar attacks.”
Halpern said that various courts in Virginia have found in favor of the university on both substantive and procedural grounds. "From the beginning, the attorney general had no case, and has wasted the state’s time and attention for nearly two years on this boondoggle."
Numerous other investigations, including ones by the National Science Foundation anf the National Academy of Sciences, have reaffirmed Mann's work, further increasing confidence in the "Hockey Stick" graph.
Get Shawn Lawrence Otto's new book: Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, Starred Kirkus Review; Starred Publishers Weekly review. Visit him at http://www.shawnotto.com. Like him on Facebook. Join ScienceDebate.org to get the presidential candidates to debate science.
Tags: Antiscience, Climate Change, Politics, Education, Authoritarianism, Belief, Freedom
Comments (17)
Dan Johnson:
Mar 02, 2012 at 01:20 PM
"Cuccinelli has said he believes that climate change is a hoax..." and therefore any data at all is fraud in his mind. The only this those this incompetent should be shown is the door. It is amazing that people haven't twigged to the fact that their taxes pay for such confused "authorities" to puff themselves up as judges of real science.
Dan Johnson:
Mar 02, 2012 at 01:23 PM
typo: The only thing those this incompetent should be shown is the door.
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