Far-Left Groups Training Judges on How to Handle Global Warming Lawsuits

A far-left advocacy group with deep-pocketed donors has been training American judges across the country on how to rule in their favor when it comes to lawsuits related to so-called “global warming.”

According to Fox News, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), a group based out of Washington D.C., created the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) in 2018. The group boasts of being the first-ever of its kind in the United States, ostensibly providing “reliable, up-to-date information” about lawsuits and other legal actions involving global warming, often for the purpose of seeking liability over the alleged harmful effects of such a phenomenon.

The CJP has created at least 13 curriculum modules and has hosted 42 events, which together have trained over 1,700 judges. In addition, several judges serve as advisers to the leadership of CJP; such judges include Ronald Robie, associate justice for the 3rd District of the California Court of Appeals, Judge Michael Simon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, and David Tate, former senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“As the body of climate litigation grows, judges must consider complex scientific and legal questions, many of which are developing rapidly,” the CJP website states. “To address these issues, the Climate Judiciary Project of the Environmental Law Institute is collaborating with leading national judicial education institutions to meet judges’ need for basic familiarity with climate science methods and concepts.”

“We are developing and disseminating a climate science and law curriculum and are conducting seminars and educational programs, in collaboration with leading climate scientists and legal experts,” the site continues. “The goal of our project is to provide neutral, objective information to the judiciary about the science of climate change as it is understood by the expert scientific community and relevant to current and future litigation.”

ELI reported a total revenue of $8.6 million and assets of $14.6 million in its most recent tax filings. The group has primarily fundraised from such left-wing nonprofits as the Oak Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Walton Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In addition, ELI is also closely connected to the law firm Sher Edling, which represents multiple jurisdictions in such global warming lawsuits primarily targeting oil companies.

“A grant to the Environmental Law Institute will support the Climate Judiciary Project, which was launched in 2019,” said a statement by the MacArthur Foundation justifying its $500,000 contribution to the ELI in 2020. “The goal of the project is to increase judges’ understanding of the objective facts of climate science as it is understood by the expert scientific community, and how the lack of information would result in serious consequences for human and natural systems.”

“This will lead to better-informed decisions,” the MacArthur group added, “and ultimately build a body of law supporting climate action.”

An example of such a global warming-centric lawsuit took place in August of this year, when a federal judge ruled that the state of Montana must be legally obligated to protect its residents from the impact of “global warming.”