FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general in a letter to the Federal Judicial Center (“FJC”) strongly opposing its decision to strike the chapter titled, Reference Guide on Climate Science, from the Fourth Edition of its Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (Manual). The nonpartisan, peer-reviewed primer on climate science was removed in response to unfounded partisan pressure.
The FJC has published the Manual since 1994 as a critical resource to assist judges in considering scientific evidence. It has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and thousands of other federal and state judges over its three decades in circulation.
Prior to publication, each chapter of the Manual undergoes extensive peer-review over many months by both the scientific community and the judiciary. The Reference Guide on Climate Science was treated no differently than any other chapter and was subjected to the same deliberate and thorough review. That process was thrown aside when the FJC decided, without any explanation or public comment, to remove the chapter on climate science in response to partisan pressure.
As the letter states, “Such a guide is sorely needed as litigation involving climate science only grows in prevalence and urgency in our courts. Furthermore, the chapter’s removal does not change the scientific reality of climate change. As the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged nearly twenty years ago, ‘[a] well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,’ a causal connection between manmade greenhouse gases and global warming exists, and ‘the harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized.’”
The coalition urges the FJC to reinstate the Reference Guidance on Climate Science chapter to the Manual.
In sending today’s letter, Attorney General Brown joined the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, the City of Chicago, and Harris County, Texas.
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