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A Legal Setback for Climate Scientist Michael Mann [1]
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Date: 2025-05-29
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that renown climate scientist Michael Mann has suffered a legal setback.
Way back in 2012 — during the “hockey stick” controversy — two right-wing bloggers attacked Mann’s scholarship in pair of articles published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Review.
In the original article posted at OpenMarket.org, Rand Simberg called Mann the “Jerry Sandusky of climate change,” (referring to the disgraced Penn State football coach) and wrote that “Instead of molesting children, [Mann] has molested and tortured data.”
Mark Steyn cited that article in a piece at the National Review, and called Mann’s research “fraudulent.”
[edited for clarity]
The scientist sued the pair for defamation in a D.C. Court. The jury decided that Mann had, indeed been libeled, but the case dragged on though counter-suits and appeals. The Supreme Court upheld the original verdict by declining to hear the case in 2019.
Last year (February 8, 2024), another D.C. jury awarded Mann $1 million in punitive damages from Steyn and $1,000 from Simberg in punitive damages, plus $1 from each defendant in compensatory damages.
But in January, Judge Alfred S. Irving of the District of Columbia Superior Court decided to punish Mann for errors in the plaintiff’s claim. The jury’s award was based in part on citations of grants that would be jeopardized by damage to Mann’s reputation.
His attorneys claimed that one such grant was valued at $9.7 million, but documents showed that Mann had only been awarded $112,000. Judge Irving called this “an affront to the Court’s authority and an attack on the integrity of the proceedings.”
[I’m not an expert on research grants, but it seems like both numbers could be true. An allocation of $9.7 million over ten years, for example, and contingent on results, and an initial disbursement of $112,000]
Irving reacted by ordering Mann to pay $530,000 to the National Review, which the magazine requested, under a law intended to deter lawsuits aimed at censoring speech.
Then In March, the judge reduced Mann’s jury verdict against Steyn from $1 million to $5,000 and ordered him to pay additional legal expenses incurred while “uncovering” the errors.
And finally, Irving ordered the scientist pay $477,000 in legal fees to the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Simberg, under the same anti-retaliatory law the National Review cited.
So now Professor Mann owes the defendants a million dollars.
The judge claimed Mann’s lawyers intentionally misled the court about research grant data. The team insists the discrepancies were acknowledged and corrected before trial. Mann will, of course, appeal the reversal of the jury’s award.
Judge Irving was nominated to the DC Superior Court by George W. Bush in 2008. Prior to that he worked as a trial lawyer for the DOJ. But his first employer was the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae – once famous for representing public utilities and energy companies.
I hate to judge, but Judge Irving is either a stiff-necked martinet, a Fossil Industry shill, or he is auditioning for an appointment to a federal bench. Time will tell...
This episode illustrates why lawsuits against Preznit Thump did not leap into courtrooms the instant he started tearing down the federal government. Judges can dismiss cases for the slightest of errors, and good attorneys don’t file until they have prepared a compelling – and spotless – case.
Additional legal commentary can be found at reason.com.
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