The University of Virginia is refusing to turn over documents to the attorney general of that state, who demanded massive amounts of material on a former professor involved in the global warming e-mail controversy.

On April 23, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli slapped the university with a “civil investigative demand” letter—essentially, a subpoena—to produce reams of documents about Dr. Michael Mann, who left the university five years ago.

Several hundred Virginia professors and scientists urged the university not to comply with the demand. And on May 27, the university took their advice.

In the university’s court filing, it states that the attorney general’s demands are “unprecedented” and “threaten . . . bedrock principles.” They go “to the core of academic research,” and “their sweeping scope is certain to send a chill through the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities.”

The university also argues that the attorney general does not have the authority “to engage in scientific debate.”

“Unfettered debate and the expression of conflicting ideas without fear of reprisal are the cornerstones of academic research,” it states. Allowing the attorney general to go forward with his investigation “would impair academic freedom in the Commonwealth,” the school told the circuit court of Albemarle County.

Addendum: More than 250 scientists have decried the neo-McCarthyite tactics by the anti-global warming crowd. See the following letter:
http://www.pacinst.org/climate/climate_statement.pdf.

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.