Federal Agency Pulls Climate Change Chapter from Official Manual for U.S. Judges
3 months ago
- #political pressure
- #judicial system
- #climate change
- The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) removed all climate change content from its judicial reference manual under pressure from Republican state attorneys general.
- The withdrawn chapter included over 90 pages on climate terminology, scientific consensus, and methods linking weather events to climate change, reflecting UN IPCC conclusions.
- The manual is a key resource for judges and law clerks, produced with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, covering topics like AI and DNA identification.
- Republican attorneys general criticized the climate chapter as biased against oil and gas companies, alleging it aimed to influence ongoing climate litigation.
- Over 20 Republican attorneys general urged Congress to investigate the manual, claiming it was tainted by biased authors involved in climate lawsuits.
- The Federalist Society accused the FJC of advancing an ideological agenda by including the climate science section.
- The FJC director confirmed the chapter's removal, responding to concerns about authors' affiliations with climate litigation groups.
- One author defended the chapter, stating objections were a bad-faith attempt to suppress scientific consensus on human-caused warming.
- The National Academies retained the original manual on its website, while the FJC removed the version with the climate chapter.