Under pressure from Trump, National Academy of Sciences pulls climate chapter from judicial manual

The nonprofit organization said it would conduct an independent review on the climate section of its scientific handbook made for federal judges, after criticism it unfairly targets fossil fuel companies.WASHINGTON (CN) — The National Academy of Sciences on Friday said it had removed the climate science section from its reference manual designed for federal judges, following pressure from President Donald Trump, who claimed the nonpartisan handbook contained “fraudulent” information on climate change.The move is a major victory for conservative advocates and Republican lawmakers, who for months have called on the nongovernmental academic organization to address the manual’s climate chapter, which they’ve argued could bias the courts against the fossil fuel industry.Published since 1994, the “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence” is designed to assist federal judges ruling on cases that involve complex scientific or technological topics. The latest edition of the handbook, a joint production between the National Academy and the Federal Judicial Center, included a chapter on climate science which provided jurists with peer-reviewed information on the greenhouse effect, ecological feedback loops and other subjects.But in a statement published Friday, the National Academy said the manual’s climate section “has received considerable scrutiny” and that it would review its contents. The chapter, the organization said, would be struck from online versions of the handbook while such a survey takes place.“The NAS has determined that questions about the processes used to develop the chapter warrant an independent review, and the chapter will not appear on out website while that review is underway,” the statement read.Trump last month demanded the National Academy take another look at the judicial manual’s climate science section, writing in a social media post that he’d ordered “federal suspension and debarment officials” to review the handbook.“Our taxpayers should not be funding climate fraud, and judges should never have relied on it,” wrote the president, who claimed that “radical left Democrats” running the National Academy had published “fraudulent, biased and misleading” information on climate change.The president also opined that the reference manual had been used by judges to help rule on major cases involving climate change that created “huge losses across our country,” though he did not say which cases he thought were influenced by the scientific handbook.A spokesperson for the National Academy did not immediately return a request for comment on whether pressure from Trump was behind the organization’s decision to pull the climate section from its judicial manual.Trump, however, is not the first to question the court handbook’s guidance on climate science. A group of Republican state attorneys general in February urged members of Congress to investigate the manual, arguing it presented a “highly biased, agenda-driven” view of climate change and that its language targeted oil and gas companies.The attorneys general pointed out that some of the reference manual’s contributing authors were climate change advocates and that some were involved in litigation against the fossil fuel industry.A spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee, which conducted oversight on the National Academy, said the reference manuals were penned by “radical environmentalists” looking to bias federal judges in favor of “climate special interests.”The climate science information provided to the courts in the National Academy manual was based on peer-reviewed data and consensus reports from across the scientific community. Academics broadly agree climate change is a real phenomenon exacerbated by human activity.The Federal Judicial Center, for its part, pulled the climate science chapter from its own online version of the reference manual in February. Organization director Clara Altman told Courthouse News last month the section is still available in hard copies of the handbook.Dozens of scientists, academics and federal judges contribute to the judiciary’s scientific handbook, including Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who penned the foreword of the manual’s latest edition.Testifying before Congress last month, Kagan — who wrote that the handbook helps judges reach “better and fairer” legal decisions — said she had not read the climate science chapter but that she was aware of controversy surrounding its content.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads