CEI's Fight Against Government Intimidation

When did it become a crime to disagree with a government official?

Kent Lassman

Both major-party platforms have significant problems (see here, here, and here), but one provision in the 2016 Democratic Party platform in particular hits home for CEI. It represents a very troubling trend in politicization of science and government suppression of free speech.
In a section titled “Securing Environmental and Climate Justice,” the platform states:

“Democrats also respectfully request the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies accused of misleading shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change.”

Does this sound familiar? It does to CEI. On April 7, CEI received a subpoena from U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker as a part of a similar-sounding investigation of ExxonMobil. Seemingly unaware of the Constitution or the role of competing ideas in a free society, Attorney General Walker leveraged his government authority to attack CEI’s free speech rights. Walker’s subpoena demanded that CEI hand over everything from emails to op-eds to private donor information—anything that had to do with our policy work on climate change—from 1997-2006. His objectives were to shut us up and scare our supporters.......To Read More.....