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July 6th, 2010
University of Virginia Invokes Academic Freedom to Fight ‘Climategate’ Fraud Investigation
The University of Virginia filed a brief last week opposing Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli II's demand for a huge amount of documents relating to Cuccinelli's fraud investigation of Michael Mann, an American professor at the center of the "Climategate" controversy. The brief expands on the university's academic freedom argument and other arguments, and it mentions FIRE twice.
In general, FIRE opposes investigations of professors for fraud when no evidence has been provided. Cuccinelli's initial demands provided no evidence, which would have set an extremely troubling precedent if they had gone unchallenged in that form. FIRE thus pushed Cuccinelli to reveal whether he had any basis for his comprehensive demands for years and years' worth of communications with dozens of other researchers and assistants. Cuccinelli then provided a basis for his demands, and, as we noted last month, it is now up to the court to decide.
In its filing last week, the university expanded upon its own reasons for asking the court to set aside Cuccinelli's demands, arguing in part that the "Climategate" e-mails do not provide sufficient "reason to believe" that Mann committed fraud of the sort Cuccinelli is investigating, and that the sweeping demands for documents are ...