While an educational manual for federal judges was improved when a biased representation of climate change was removed, a remaining chapter on the fundamentals of science would poison the judiciary with quackery.
The “How Science Works” chapter of the “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence” allows for an overreliance on the unproven assumptions of computer models and an acceptance of “consensus” as proof even when contradicted by empirical evidence.
Having received objections from state attorneys general and others, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg excised the offending chapter on climate change from the reference manual. This is a remedy that needs to be applied by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which still includes the chapter on its website.
In the meantime, as head of the Federal Judicial Center, the manual’s publisher, Judge Rosenberg should do the same with “How Science Works.” The judiciary and the public it serves deserve nothing less. Read the entire commentary here.
—Sharon Camp, senior education advisor for the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia, has a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, and has worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as an advanced placement science teacher.
Originally published in The Blaze on March 3, 2026.
