American Tradition Institute v. University of Virginia (Dr. Michael Mann)
The Case
On May 16, 2011, American Tradition Institute’s Environmental Law Center and Virginia Delegate Robert Marshall asked a Prince William County judge, under the Commonwealth’s Freedom of Information Act, to expedite the release of documents withheld by the University of Virginia that pertain to the work of its former environmental sciences assistant professor Dr. Michael Mann.
The legal action follows a delay by UVA of more than four months since ATI and Del. Marshall made their original request on Jan. 6. Since then UVA officials have demanded an unjustified and unsupportable sum of $8,500 from ATI to produce the documents, despite its admission that it knows precisely where the records exist on a specific University computer server. Still, ATI made a down payment of $2,000 for UVA to begin its search and delivery of Mann’s records – and also a second payment, for a total paid of $4,000.00 – but University officials still have not provided any documents, nor offered a schedule of its intentions to respond to ATI’s information request.
The emails and other documents ATI seeks relate to claims made by Dr. Mann to obtain, and claim payment under, certain taxpayer-funded grants. Mann, currently at Pennsylvania State University, worked at the UVA’s Department of Environmental Sciences when he produced what was hailed at the time as the ‘smoking gun’ affirming the theory of catastrophic man-made global warming, and the policy agenda demanded by its proponents. After a persistent cloud of controversy – much of which was affirmed by the “ClimateGate” leak of 2009 – this notorious ‘Hockey Stick’ graph disappeared from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, the perch that launched it.
UVA, with approximately $500,000 in support from private donors, has resisted an earlier records request under a Civil Investigative Demand by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, which he initiated pursuant to the Commonwealth’s Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (FATA). That case is now before the state Supreme Court. Press reports indicate the University decided not to cooperate after a similar pressure campaign was launched, also seeking to bar the taxpayer (or law enforcement) from seeing records the taxpayer underwrote.
ATI has requested the same records under Virginia’s FOIA law.
Records Received from UVA
Case Documents (PDF)
September 2, 2011
Notice of Motion to Intervene (by Dr. Michael Mann)
Notice of Motion to Stay Production of Documents
May 24, 2011
Court Order to Produce Documents
Order on Protection of Documents
May 16, 2011
Petition for Mandamus and Injunctive Relief
List of Attachments to the Petition
January 6, 2011
Freedom of Information Act Request to University of Virginia for Records of Michael Mann
ATI Press Releases
September 14, 2011
Michael Mann, Science Colleagues Make Case for Release of Emails
September 6, 2011
‘Hockey Stick’ Creator Michael Mann Seeks Court’s Help to Ensure No Inquiry, No ‘Exoneration’
August 25, 2011
ATI Environmental Law Center Receives Disk from University of Virginia in Dr. Michael Mann Case
August 11, 2011
June 29, 2011
May 31, 2011
Virginia university releases correspondence of professor involved in ‘Hockey Stick’ controversy
May 25, 2011
Court Orders University of Virginia to Produce Documents of Dr. Michael Mann
May 16, 2011
April 14, 2011
ATI Slams ACLU’s Plea for University of Virginia to Deny FOIA Request of Michael Mann’s Records
February 9, 2011:
ATI Praises VA House Passage of Strengthened FOIA Law
January 18, 2011:
ATI Denounces Efforts to Block Taxpayer Access to Public Information
January 6, 2011:
ATI Commentary
“Mann Acts,” by Paul Chesser, 9/14/2011, American Spectator Online
“UVA Goes All-in on Climategate FOIA Cover-up,” by Christopher Horner, 8/27/2011, Washington Examiner
“Suing NASA and UVA,” by Paul Chesser, 8/19/2011, American Spectator Online
“A hypocritical response to UVA records request,” by Christopher Horner, 6/3/2011, The Washington Post (letter to editor)
“Court Orders U. of Virginia to Produce Michael Mann Documents,” by Paul Chesser, 5/25/2011, American Spectator Online
“Bird Brains and Others Defend Michael Mann,” by Paul Chesser, 4/15/2011, American Spectator Online
“Mann: From Transparency Champion to ‘Bully’ Victim,” by Paul Chesser, 1/7/2011, American Spectator Online
“Yes, Virginia, You Do Have to Produce Those Global Warming Documents” by Christopher Horner, David Schnare and Delegate Robert Marshall, 1/5/2011, Washington Examiner
“Mann’s Mad Money,” by Paul Chesser, 12/2/2009, American Spectator Online
Media Coverage
“The rest of the story,” 9/12/2011, WORLD magazine
“Professor turns to law to protect climate-change work,” 9/7/2011, Washington Times
“Climate change prof tries to freeze open records request,” 9/7/2011, Old Dominion Watchdog
“Mann pursues legal action,” 9/7/2011, The Cavalier Daily
“Interest group receives U.Va. climate records,” 8/25/2011, The Virginian-Pilot
“UVa. turns over FOIA-requested climate-change papers to critics,” 8/25/2011, Washington Times
“U-Va. turns over documents in global warming case,” 8/25/2011, Washington Post
“University Turns Over Some of Climate Scientist’s Documents,” 8/25/2011, Science magazine
“US body alarmed by threats to Australian scientists,” 6/30/2011, The Australian
“Climate Change Skepticism Now Considered ‘Harassment’?,” 6/29/2011, Commentary magazine
“Threats could have chilling effect on climate research, science group says,” 6/29/2011, The Hill
“Group Condemns Harassment of Climate Scientists,” 6/29/2011, New York Times
“Email dumps – Palin & U.Va.,” 6/20/2011, The Richmond Times-Dispatch (Editorial)
“Don’t look behind the green curtain,” 6/3/2011, James Taylor, The Washington Times (commentary)
“Harassing climate change researchers,” 5/30/2011, The Washington Post (editorial)
“Judge orders UVA to hand over climate research records,” 5/27/2011, Associated Press
“Still hiding the decline?,” 5/27/2011, Investor’s Business Daily (editorial)
“UVA ordered to release ‘climategate’ prof’s email, but rival defends him,” 5/26/2011, Virginia Statehouse News
“Climate Scientist Ordered to Release Thousands of Documents,” 5/26/2011, Commentary magazine
“Freedom of information trumps academic freedom,” 5/26/2011, Washington Examiner (editorial)
“U.Va. to release climate change papers to interest group,” 5/26/2011, The Virginian-Pilot
“Ruling alters climate papers fight,” 5/26/2011, Washington Times
“Judge orders release of climate change documents,” 5/25/2011, Washington Examiner
“U.-Va. agrees to complete response to global warming public records request by August,” 5/25/2011, Washington Post
“Interest group asks court to intervene in U.Va. climate records dispute,” 5/17/2011, The Virginian-Pilot
“Conservative group goes to Prince William judge for climate records,” 5/17/2011, Washington Examiner
“Organization tries to expedite release of UVa climate files,” 5/17/2011, The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.)
“UVA will pursue ‘all available exemptions’ to climate investigation,” 4/28/2011, C-Ville Online (Charlottesville, Va.)
“U-Va. says it will exercise ‘available exemptions’ on climate change records request,” 4/27/2011, The Washington Post
“Mind your Mann-ers,” 4/26/2011, C-Ville Online (Charlottesville, Va.)
“Groups oppose request,” 4/18/2011, The Cavalier Daily
Broadcast Interviews
Roger Hedgecock Show with Christopher Horner, 8/30/2011
Score Radio Network Interview with Christopher Horner, 6/4/2011
Big Talker Morning Show, Wilmington, NC, with Christopher Horner, 6/2/2011
Rob Schilling Show, 5/31/2011, with Chris Horner discussing disparity between GMU and UVA FOIA responses
Score Radio Network Interview with Christopher Horner, 5/21/2011
Big Talker Morning Show, Wilmington, NC, with Christopher Horner, 5/19/2011
The Schilling Show, WINA, Charlottesville, Va., 5/16/2011, Interview with Christopher Horner (begins at 12:10 into audio clip)
Blogs
“Michael Mann goes hysterical: I can’t show you my dirty laundry!,” 9/8/2011, The Reference Frame (Lubos Motl)
“Mann FOIA Dump,” 8/30/2011, CommonSense with Paul Jacob
“Climategate and FOIA in Virginia,” 8/29/2011, Reason Online
“Of Mann and Strawmen,” 8/26/2011, Score Radio Network
“Mann UVA Emails Released,” 8/24/2011, Watts Up With That
“Freedom of Information is Great, But What About Our Phony-Baloney Jobs?,” 8/15/2011, Score Radio Network
“Multi-tentacled Mann o’ war raging over UVA emails,” 8/11/2011, Watts Up With That
“AAAS’s Selective Outrage,” 7/5/2011, William Yeatman, Globalwarming.org
“Bizarre: NYT follows AAAS lead on ‘FOIA requests equate to death threats’,” 6/29/2011, Watts Up With That
“Emails, schmemails – its only harrassment when they do it,” 6/12/2011, Watts Up With That
“Science and the media,” 6/3/2011, Physics Today (scroll to last item)
“Climate Change FOIA Hypocrisy: Information About Climate Change Research Wants to Be Free,” 6/3/2011, Reason Online
“Mann’s Hockey Stick, Climategate, and FOI – in a nutshell,” 6/3/2011, Watts Up With That
“FOIA as harassment, Washington Post Edition,” 5/31/2011, Score Radio Network
“Weather Pattern Shifts in Climate Change Debate,” 5/30/2011, Virginia Tomorrow
“The Washington Post produces a bigoted editorial against the public right to know,” 5/30/2011, Watts Up With That
“WashPost: Freedom of Information Act not for skeptics’ use,” 5/30/2011, JunkScience.com
“The Vergano FOI Request,” 5/28/2011, Climate Audit
“Audit ‘Big U’,” 5/27/2011, Washington Examiner
“Horner 1, Mann 0,” 5/26/2011, Pajamas Media
“University Of Virginia Agrees To Release Some Global Warming Documents,” 5/26/2011, NPR blog
“UVa coughs up Mann emails,” 5/26/2011, Bacon’s Rebellion
“U. of Virginia Agrees to Release Climate Researcher’s Emails,” 5/26/2011, Chronicle of Higher Education
“Freedom of information,” 5/25/2011, Dr. Judith Curry
“ATI & UVA: Reviewing exempted material,” 5/25/2011, Climate Science FOI Report
“Judge orders UVA to hand over Michael Mann’s emails,” 5/25/2011, Bearing Drift (Va.)
“UVA to supply Mann emails/documents but you can’t look (yet),” 5/24/2011, Watts Up With That
“U of Virginia to Supply FOI Documents Under Seal Pending Determination,” 5/24/2011, Climate Audit
“ATI Law Center to UVA: Give us the Climategate E-mails,” 5/16/2011, Planet Gore (National Review Online)
“American Tradition Institute Takes UVA to Court Over Mann Emails,” 5/16/2011, Score Radio Network
“Global Warming Hysteria: What is Good for the Skeptic Should be Good for the Believer,” 4/27/2011, First Things
“Selective outrage over FOIA of Michael Mann’s climate emails,” 4/15/2011, Norman Leahy (Washington Examiner)
[...] See all court documents, press releases, media coverage of ATI’s case against UVA [...]
[...] week, the American Tradition Institute's Environmental Law Center took the University of Virginia to court yesterday in Prince William County to ask a judge to force the release of documents of Climategate [...]
[...] Pennsylvania State University, but includes other documents as well. The organization, called the American Traditions Institute, joined with a Republican state legislator to file its request after the university went to court [...]
[...] See all court documents, press releases, media coverage of ATI’s case against UVA [...]
[...] To view all documents and media coverage of ATI v. University of Virginia, visit ATI’s special Law Center page for the case. [...]
[...] Law Center in its efforts to obtain records of Climategate scientist Dr. Michael Mann from the University of Virginia, and its efforts to obtain outside employment records of climate activist Dr. James Hansen from the [...]
[...] Virginia Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the University of Virginia to gain the release of records that pertain to Climategate scientist Dr. Michael [...]
[...] of University of Virginia‘s “Hockey Stick” and other Michael Mann records here, and seeking the ethics file — if it exists — governing James Hansen’s lucrative [...]
[...] Virginia Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the University of Virginia to gain the release of records that pertain to Climategate scientist Dr. Michael [...]
[...] why my organization, American Tradition Institute, initiated two public records requests (which have turned into Freedom of Information Act lawsuits) for [...]
[...] regarding the University of Virginia’s response to ATI’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit regarding Dr. Michael [...]
[...] to Climategate "Hockey Stick" chart creator Michael Mann that ATI asked for in January under a Freedom of Information Act request. Except the records provided — less than half of the 9,000 or so records that UVA says are [...]
[...] theory, has asked to intervene in American Tradition Institute’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that seeks certain records produced by Mann and others while he was at the University of Virginia, [...]
[...] has enlisted a Climategate Cavalcade of Stars to help him enter as an interested party in a lawsuit in which myorganization, American Tradition Institute, seeks to get his old UVA emails and [...]
[...] to allow them to intervene in American Tradition Institute’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against University of Virginia, citing Dr. Mann’s alleged personal interest in the disclosure [...]
[...] Period, has enlisted a Climategate Cavalcade of Stars to help him enter as an interested party in a lawsuit in which my organization, American Tradition Institute, seeks to get his old UVA emails and [...]