{"id":2238,"date":"2013-08-02T14:36:57","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T19:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=2238"},"modified":"2013-08-02T14:36:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T19:36:57","slug":"d-c-court-affirms-michael-manns-right-to-proceed-in-defamation-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2013\/08\/02\/d-c-court-affirms-michael-manns-right-to-proceed-in-defamation-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"D.C. Court Affirms Michael Mann\u2019s Right to Proceed in Defamation Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

By Reeva Dua, Summer Intern<\/p>\n

On July 19, 2013 the Superior Court of D.C. affirmed Michael Mann\u2019s right to proceed in his defamation lawsuit against Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the National Review, Inc. and related parties. The Court\u2019s ruling is significant for giving a climate scientist a potential remedy against those who impugn the integrity of his work without a sound basis.<\/p>\n

Michael Mann, climatologist and professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), is well known for his research on global warming and is one of the co-authors of the well-known \u201cHockey Stick Graph,\u201d which represents the global mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years. The graph has been used by the International Panel on Climate Change and others.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2009, approximately one thousand e-mails \u201cwere misappropriated from a server\u201d of the University of East Anglia\u2019s Climate Research Unit (CRU) and posted on the Internet. When taken out of context, parts of the e-mails cast doubt on the truthfulness of the data that Mann had published. Shortly after this incident, numerous different bodies investigated Mann\u2019s research under the accusations (many made by the defendants) of fraud, including CRU, Penn State, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science Foundation. None of these investigations found Mann\u2019s work to be fraudulent and concluded that it was trustworthy.<\/p>\n

Since then, the CEI and the NRI have published articles about Mann and the investigations. In 2012, NRI posted an article online that accused Mann of being an \u201cacademic fraud\u201d and compared Penn State\u2019s investigation of him to their investigation of Jerry Sandusky, the convicted sexual predator.<\/p>\n

On October 22, 2012 Mann filed a suit against CEI and NRI, claiming defamation and also intentional infliction of emotional distress.<\/p>\n

The defendants tried to have the D.C. Court dismiss Mann\u2019s case on two grounds: the protection of the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, and Rule 12(b)(6) of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The Anti-SLAPP Act (which stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) \u201cprotects speech regarding the public interest\u2026\u201d and is intended to prevent lawsuits from being used to discourage comment on matters of public concern. Rule 12(b)(6) grants the court the ability to deny an action when the plaintiff \u201c\u2018\u2026fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.\u2019\u201d The court rejected both of these defenses, using similar reasoning for each.<\/p>\n

On the first ground, the Defendants argued that they were \u201cprotected by the Anti-SLAPP Act because their commentary was an \u2018act in furtherance of the right of advocacy on issues of public interest.\u2019\u201d The CEI Defendants claimed that the Anti-SLAPP Act required Mann to provide proof of \u201cactual malice\u201d (on the part of the defendants) using \u201cclear and convincing evidence,\u201d and that he was incapable of providing such evidence. \u201cActual malice\u201d is defined as a statement made \u201cwith knowledge that it was false\u201d or a reckless disregard of the truth.<\/p>\n

The court ruled that the Anti-SLAPP Act was relevant in this case because climate change and environmental issues are topics of public interest. However, the court found that Mann had, in fact, established a basis for asserting \u201cactual malice.\u201d While the court acknowledged that the issue of global warming is highly contentious and often involves harsh dialogue, the court pointed to specific statements by the defendants that, when placed in context, were not simply opinions and went beyond \u201crhetorical hyperbole.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the Defendants\u2019 argument that \u201ctheir statements are not actionable because they raise questions rather than make factual assertions\u201d was dismissed as the Court noted that some of the accusations relied on interpretations of facts (from the e-mails that were released in 2009). When statements about Mann being a \u201cfraud\u201d and \u201cfraudulent\u201d were placed in context, the statements \u201cmust be viewed as more than honest commentary- particularly when investigations have found otherwise,\u201d explained the court. Therefore, the court placed heavy importance on the fact that all prior investigations had cleared Mann\u2019s scientific research as trustworthy. The court even mentioned that because CEI itself was one of the instigators of the investigations of Mann\u2019s work, CEI knew it was a fact that Mann\u2019s research and ultimate conclusions \u201cwere sound and not based on misleading information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court scheduled a status hearing for September 27, 2013.<\/p>\n

Read full case<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reeva Dua, Summer Intern On July 19, 2013 the Superior Court of D.C. affirmed Michael Mann\u2019s right to proceed in his defamation lawsuit against Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the National Review, Inc. and related parties. The Court\u2019s ruling is significant for giving a climate scientist a potential remedy against those who impugn the integrity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5673],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-litigation","7":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"\nD.C. 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