NEWS

Among our recent news: Our model scientific integrity policy serves as a blueprint for federal agencies and other institutions needing to adopt strong, comprehensive policies that protect science.

We created guides for these agencies because each one conducts, funds, or relies on scientific research. They all provide crucial information to the public and formulate policy. And they are all involved, to some degree, with climate research or climate policy. There are also cases of political interference and science being sidelined at each of them.

Our own Lauren Kurtz and Susan Rosenthal co-authored When Politics Trump Science: The Erosion of Science-Based Regulation, an article published in The Environmental Law Reporter. They describe how President Trump has led a concerted effort to undermine federal scientific research, particularly in areas where research findings contradict his own views or undermine the basis of his deregulatory agenda.

Participating in Political Activities: Guidelines for Federally Employed and Federally Funded Scientists will help researchers understand whether they can donate to a candidate, volunteer for a campaign, express their support for a candidate on social media, and engage in other political activities.

Our newest resource, Participating in Political Activities: Guidelines for Federally Employed and Federally Funded Scientists, is a must-read for politically engaged researchers.

The Trump administration has responded to COVID-19 using tactics it honed in the climate arena: ignoring or burying relevant scientific information, pushing misinformation, and silencing scientists who warn us of the dangers, writes staff attorney Augusta Wilson in a new blog post.

The Trump administration has responded to COVID-19 using tactics it honed in the climate arena: ignoring or burying relevant scientific information, pushing misinformation, and silencing scientists who warn us of the dangers. This pervasive “see no evil, hear no evil” approach has handicapped the U.S.’s ability to respond to both of these unfolding crises.

Lauren Kurtz, our director, is quoted in The New York Times on the challenges of combating attacks on science. Our pro bono client Maria Caffrey, a climate scientist who was forced out of her job at the National Park Service in 2019, was also interviewed.