A few months ago I complained that New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and other state Attorneys General appeared to be starting a campaign to intimidate climate skeptics and/or deniers under the guise of investigating ExxonMobil.
Now comes news of a counterattack: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) has issued congressional subpoenas for Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, along with nine climate activist groups, requesting all relevant communications between the groups and the attorneys general in order to investigate a possible conspiracy “to act under color of law to persuade attorneys general to use their prosecutorial powers to stifle scientific discourse, to intimidate private entities and individuals, and deprive them of their First Amendment rights and freedoms.”
I have two responses to this development:
(1) AH-HA-HA-HAHA! LIVE BY THE SWORD, DIE BY THE SWORD, MOTHERFUCKERS!!! PAYBACK’S A BITCH, AIN’T IT?
and
(2) This is really very wrong.
I have no actual sympathy for AGs Schneiderman and Healey. They are government employees, public servants subject to oversight and review. They started this, and for their attempts to stifle free speech they deserve to be gang-subpoenaed by congress, repeatedly.
The climate activist groups, on the other hand, are citizens exercising their free speech rights to discuss matters of public importance and — to the extent that they communicated with various attorneys general — petition the government. They don’t have to explain themselves to anyone.
As I said before, this is not how science is supposed to work. That’s not how debate over public policy is supposed to work.
I agree, except that the communications might uncover collusion with the AGs, and if that is the case I’m not concerned their speech might be chilled.
I’m not sure what would constitute collusion. People ask cops to arrest other people for bad reasons all the time. It’s up to the cops (or the AGs, in this case) to know the difference between right and wrong. That is, the environmental groups may be asking for something asinine, but that’s kind of their right.