The University of Virginia today stood up to rightwing bullies by telling Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that his witch hunt stops here.
Read on.
First, here's the news:
RICHMOND - The University of Virginia filed a court challenge today seeking to block Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s investigation of climate scientist Michael Mann.
The university filed a petition in Albemarle County Circuit Court as the first step in a legal process to set aside Cuccinelli’s civil subpoena seeking documents relating to global-warming research by Mann, who left U.Va. in 2005 and now works at Pennsylvania State University.
Now, the background.
Michael Mann is an environmental scientist who was on the UVA faculty for several years during which time he received four state grants to support his studies on climate change. Mann later went to a British university where he continued his climate change work. Mann's emails and private communications were among those items hacked by a group of global-warming deniers. Mann -- now at Penn State -- has been under attack by the global-warming denier crowd for fudging data to support his conclusions. At least three reviews of his work have shown that he did no such thing.
Ken Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General of Virginia in November 2009. Coochy is a hard-core rightwinger with national political aspirations. To support his future campaigns, Coochy has -- from Day One -- thrown red meat to the rightwing base. One of his first official acts was to inform state colleges and universities that, because Virginia does not have a law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, their policies banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation are not legal. And he went downhill from there.
Which brings us to today.
A couple of weeks ago Coochy issued "Civil Investigative Demand" letters -- basically, subpoenas in a civil case -- to the University of Virginia. These CIDs demanded that the University turn over to Coochy all of Professor Mann's papers, emails, and the like. Coochy plans to review Mann's papers for anything he can use to claim that Mann obtained state grants under false pretenses -- then bring criminal charges against Mann.
VA rightwingers damn near threw a party to celebrate Ol' Cooch sticking it to the liberals.
Today, however, the University of Virginia told AG Cuccinelli to shove his subpoenas up his ass.
Well, that's not exactly what they said. After all, being educated folks, unlike the Old Redneck, the University had to clean up the language a bit:
"Academic freedom is essential to the mission of our Nation's institutions of higher learning and a core First Amendment concern. As Thomas Jefferson intended, the University of Virginia has a long and proud tradition of embracing the 'illimitable freedom of the human mind' by fully endorsing and supporting faculty research and scholarly pursuits. Our Nation also has a long and proud tradition of limited government framed by enumerated powers which Jefferson ardently believed was necessary for a civil society to endure."
This is the preliminary statement of a petition filed today by the University of Virginia to "set aside" the Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) issued to the University by Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II on April 23, 2010.
In announcing today's filing, University President John T. Casteen III said the University intends to protect academic freedom. Casteen said that issuance of the CIDs "has sent a chill through the Commonwealth's colleges and universities - a chill that has reached across the country and attracted the attention of all of higher education."
Back when Joe McCarthy was running wild, trashing innocent people with charges that they were Commies, attorney Joseph Welch finally stood up to McCarthy's bullying with his famous " Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? "
Today, the University of Virginia stood up to a bully.
Mr. Jefferson would be proud of his University.