The University of Virginia’s latest Motion to set aside Ken Cuccinelli’s Third “Civil Investigative Demand” for documents related to climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann makes an excellent read:
http://voices.washingtonpost.c…
I commend it to everyone!
(If there is a fold, there is more below it)
For those of us who have been closely following this issue, it interesting not only for what it says, but for what it omits.
Just after Cuccinelli let loose his latest Civil Investigative Demand, the following appeared in a Virginia Pilot article:
“Mann said in an e-mail Monday that his climate change research wasn’t a part of the state grant in question in the new CID and that the two papers that Cuccinelli references aren’t mentioned or cited in the grant proposal. Mann wrote that he played a minor role in that study, which focused on “natural land-vegetation-atmosphere interaction in the African savanna.”
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/…
UVAs response says NOTHING about this. What is going on here?
The answer, I think, is this: UVa knows that it has Cooch by the short hairs, and has made a tactical decision to let the case play out.
Extending the case like this will come at a not insignificant price for the University, in terms of attorneys fees.
But it probably is the best way to make the point UVa wants to make about academic freedom.
Arguably, extending this fight may also be the best way to make this as politically embarrassing for Cuccinelli as possible.
I am sure that is just a coincidence, though.
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