UVa decides to fight AG’s demands
DOI: 10.1063/PT.4.1008
On the last day that the University of Virginia could appeal a civil investigative demand (similar to a subpoena) by Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli to investigate former UVa scientist Michael Mann , the university went to court to defend its academic freedom on nine grounds.
At first, it looked like UVa’s governing board was planning to comply with the CID, but the uproar among UVa faculty and elsewhere led UVa president John T. Casteen III to hire the law firm Hogan Lovells to see what options the university had.
UVa argued in a motion filed in Charlottesville that Cuccinelli’s subpoena for papers and e-mail from Mann exceeds the attorney general’s authority under state law. In particular, the CID did not specify “the nature of the conduct constituting the alleged violation,” or why Mann was singled out for investigation.
In its opening statement UVa said:
“Academic freedom is essential to the mission of our Nation’s institutions of higher learning and a core First Amendment concern. As Thomas Jefferson intended, the University of Virginia has a long and proud tradition of embracing the ‘illimitable freedom of the human mind’ by fully endorsing and supporting faculty research and scholarly pursuits. Our Nation also has a long and proud tradition of limited government framed by enumerated powers which Jefferson ardently believed was necessary for a civil society to endure.”
Casteen said that the CID “has sent a chill through the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities – a chill that has reached across the country and attracted the attention of all of higher education.”
The petition also argues that Virginia’s taxpayer law does not apply to federal grants. Four of the five grants mentioned in the subpoena were from NOAA and NSF. The submission also points out that the time frame in question was before the law’s implementation in 2003, and hence Cuccinelli could not retroactively apply the law to Mann’s grants.
“The CIDs at issue appear to be unprecedented,” says the motion. “To the University’s knowledge, this is the first time that a Virginia Attorney General has used the limited authority under [the taxpayers fraud act] to issue a CID in service of an investigation into scientific research conducted by a university faculty member.”
The university’s court action was praised by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Association of University Professors . More than 900 Virginia scientists and academics have signed a letter urging Cuccinelli to drop his investigation.
In a statement released earlier today, Cuccinelli said:
“We are reviewing the petition, and we are negotiating with UVa’s attorneys to establish a briefing schedule to allow this matter to be resolved by the court as soon as possible. Our full response will be available when we file it with the court.”
The issue should reach the courts just at the time for Cuccinelli to start ramping up his campaign to become governor.
In comments to Physics Today, Mann said that he was “pleased to see UVa stand up for the principles that Thomas Jefferson’s great university was founded upon, in particular, the principle of academic freedom.”
“Unbeknownst to many, I imagine, Jefferson, like my colleagues and I, was in fact a climate scientist—one of the very first climate scientists. He collected some of the earliest climate observations in America at Monticello, and he had James Madison collect similar observations up at Montpelier Virginia to the north. When I was at UVa, my students and I analyzed those observations and published an article detailing what they told us about past summer droughts in the region . I believe that Jefferson would be particularly horrified to see the very sort of science that he held so dear subject to the ideological attacks of politicians. Jefferson would be proud of the stance that President John Casteen III, the rectors, and the faculty have taken to defend both academia and science.”
Paul Guinnessy
More about the authors
Paul Guinnessy, pguinnes@aip.org
