We provide free legal aid and resources to researchers, educate the scientific community about their rights and responsibilities, and strengthen legal protections to promote scientific integrity.
Our education programming teaches scientists about the legal issues surrounding their work and ensures they know how to respond to conflicts arising from their research. We also share strategies and information about cases with attorneys.
These nine guides are designed to help researchers understand their employer’s policy and navigate the process of filing a scientific integrity complaint.
Scientific integrity failures aren’t limited to issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic; they are distressingly pervasive in research institutions under the Trump administration.
This guide provides best practices for engaging in advocacy and protests; CSLDF attorneys wrote it with input from experts at the American Civil Liberties Union.
The risk of legal attack on any individual scientist is small, but there are actions researchers can take to protect and defend themselves against politically-motivated attacks.
“If top-level administrators issued a really clear public directive, there would be an uproar and a pushback, and it would be easier to combat,” said Lauren Kurtz, director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which supports scientists. “This is a lot harder to fight.”
Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the New York-based Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, is not directly involved in Helmig's case, but said the circumstances sound familiar.
Along with the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, the Sabin Center has been tracking the erosion of climate science under Trump using their “Silencing Science Tracker.”
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