Climate Change Is Erased From a Manual for Federal Judges

A federal agency has deleted a chapter on climate science from the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence after complaints from 27 Republican state attorneys general. Attorney General John B. McCuskey of West Virginia made public a Feb. 6 letter from Judge Robin L.

Rosenberg, the Federal Judicial Center’s director, stating that the chapter had been omitted. The center provided no further explanation and declined to comment. The removal comes as courts have become a more prominent battleground for climate policy. A 2024 Supreme Court decision overturning the Chevron deference reduced courts’ tendency to defer to federal agencies, and that change has added to judges’ responsibility to understand complex scientific issues.

“That elevates the importance of clear, well-supported science in the courtroom and robust standards for evaluating expert testimony,” said Delta Merner, lead scientist for the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

United States, West Virginia

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