By David Wojick
Quick action by a coalition of states has saved the American judicial system from being presented with a huge hunk of climate alarmism in the guise of guidance. Sounds like a lot. and it is.
The story starts with a massive judicial tome called the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. This 1600 page manual is designed to give federal and state judges a basic introduction to scientific issues that frequently show up in their courts.
The manual has been produced since 1994 by a federal judicial branch agency called the Federal Judicial Center. It is reported to be widely used and cited by both state and federal courts.
The Judicial Center just produced the fourth edition of the manual which promptly hit the fan. It contained a new 100 page section called the “Reference Manual on Climate Science,” which was pure alarmism.
Especially egregious was a long sub-section titled “Climate Change Detection, Attribution, and Projections.” Attribution here refers to claims to know just how much of a specific nasty weather event was caused by anthropogenic global warming.
This absurd concept of attribution is the core of the climate hoax. But the manual presents attribution as settled science. Judges are encouraged to accept absurd attribution claims as expert knowledge.
The combined state and federal court systems presently include many trillions of dollars worth of climate change damage lawsuits, all based on attribution claims. These attribution claims are the central issue in the damage lawsuits so it is breathtakingly wrong for the Manual to take a strong (and wrong) position on them.
Fortunately, the states quickly jumped in and objected to this obviously wrong interference with judicial procedure.
Led by West Virginia, a coalition of 27 State Attorney’s General sent a strong letter of protest to the head of the Federal Judicial Center asking that the entire Reference Manual on Climate Science be withdrawn.
As of this writing, the West Virginia Attorney General just received this reply from the Federal Judiciary Center Director:
“In response to your letter dated January 29, 2026, I write to inform you that the Federal Judicial Center has omitted the climate science chapter from the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition.”
The climate junk is out. Reason wins! There is likely to be pushback from alarmists but the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court chairs the Center’s Board and he is not much pushable.
West Virginia’s letter is also signed by the Attorney’s General of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
Here are two excerpts from the letter to give you the gist of the primary issue:
“….the Fourth Edition places the judiciary firmly on one side of some of the most hotly disputed questions in current litigation: climate-related science and “attribution.” Such work undermines the judiciary’s impartiality and places a thumb on one side of the scale. It does so even as these issues are pending before the Supreme Court and other parts of the federal judiciary.”
“….the authors offer unsolicited, ex parte expert opinions on matters that they recognize are directly at issue in ongoing suits. In several places, for instance, the authors dismiss any suggestion that climate science is too speculative or uncertain to justify relief. They do so even though those concerns present one of the central problems in climate-related cases (and even though certainty is an essential element of expert admissibility standards).”
The entire letter is well worth reading.
Perhaps this is a step in the direction of ridding the courts of all these frivolous climate lawsuits. Let’s hope so. In any case, well done West Virginia!
