An environmental advocacy group accused of trying to manipulate judges organized a years-long, nationwide online forum with jurists to promote favorable info and litigation updates regarding climate issues – until the email-styled group chat was abruptly made private, Fox News Digital found.
The Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) was founded in 2018 by a left-wing environmental nonprofit, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and pitches itself as a ‘first-of-its-kind effort’ that ‘provides judges with authoritative, objective, and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law.’
But critics, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, say CJP is funded by China and left-wing activists for one purpose.
‘They fund CJP to train judges,’ Cruz said during a June hearing. ‘So, quote, unquote, train in climate science and make them agreeable to creative climate litigation tactics. Then, these left-wing bankrollers turn around and fund the climate litigators who will bring these bogus cases before those same judges that they’ve just indoctrinated.
‘This is like paying the players to play and paying the umpire to call the shots the way you want.’
The group, however, says it provides ‘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.’
One of the efforts CJP launched included rolling out an email-styled listserv by which leaders from the Climate Judiciary Project could message directly with judges, documents obtained by Fox News Digital show. The listserv was launched in September 2022 and maintained until May 2024, according to the documents. A portal website page for the forum was previously publicly available, with an archived link saved in July 2024 showing there were 29 members in the group.
‘Judicial Leaders in Climate Science,’ the archived website link reviewed by Fox Digital reads, accompanied by a short description that the group was a ‘Forum for Judicial Leaders in Climate Science to share resources.’
A link to the forum now leads to an error warning, stating, ‘Sorry, but that group does not exist.’
Fox News Digital obtained the archived chat history of the forum, which detailed numerous messages between at least five judges and CJP employees trading links on climate studies, congratulating one another on hosting recent environmental events, sharing updates on recent climate cases that were remanded to state courts, and encouraging each other to participate in other CJP meet-ups.
One message posted by Delaware Judge Travis Laster, vice chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, features a YouTube video of a 2022 climate presentation delivered by a Delaware official and a Columbia University professor that focused on the onslaught of climate lawsuits since the mid-2000s. It also included claims that such lawsuits could one day bankrupt the fuel industry.
Laster shared the video in the group with a disclaimer to others: ‘Please do not forward or use without checking with me’ as the video is ‘unlisted’ on YouTube and not publicly available.
A handful of other judges responded to Laster’s video and message, praising it as ‘great work.’
‘This is great work/great stuff, Travis; congrats on a job well-done, & thank you so much for sharing this!,’ Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Scheele responded, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
Another judge in a Nebraska county court added that he had not watched the video yet but said the state court administrator’s office was interested in a similar program focused on ‘litigation and climate change.’ The Nebraska judge said he ‘may need to lean on all of you for guidance and direction.’
The judges’ correspondence on the forum included their typical email signatures, showcasing their job titles as ‘judge’ as well as which court they preside over.
The climate activists also posted messages directed to the judges on the listserv, Fox News Digital found, including a science and policy analyst at the Environmental Law Institute posting a lengthy message on Nov. 15, 2023. The message encouraged judges and climate activists alike to review the government’s publication of the Fifth National Climate Assessment that year, which the environmental crusader said contained ‘good news and bad news.’
‘The bad news is that the impacts of climate change are being felt throughout all regions of the United States, and these impacts are expected to worsen with every fraction of a degree of additional warming. The report finds that climate change will continue to affect our nation’s health, food security, water supply, and economy,’ the message read.
‘The good news is that the report also notes that it isn’t too late for us to act,’ the message continued, before encouraging the 28 other members of the group to go over CJP’s climate curricula, such as ‘Climate Science 101’ and ‘Climate Litigation 101,’ and send over any feedback.
‘As you know, our Climate Judiciary Project exists to be as beneficial to judges as possible, so any insights you might have for us would be very helpful!’ the message added when asking members to review the curricula.
In another message, CJP’s manager, Jared Mummert, sent a message to the group in May 2024 praising the judges for their mentorship of a second group of ‘Judicial Leaders in Climate Science’ – which included 14 judges from 12 states and Puerto Rico – as part of a partnership between CJP and the National Judicial College. The National Judicial College provides judicial training for judges across the country from its Reno, Nevada, campus.
‘We want to give a special ‘thank you’ to those who are serving as mentors to this second cohort!’ the message read. It added that CJP was ramping up its number of ‘engagement opportunities’ to ‘every six months for both cohorts of judges to come together to share updates and connect with one another.’
Fox News Digital reached out to five of the judges on the listserv for comment, four of whom did not respond.
