National Academy of Sciences removes climate chapter from judges' reference manual after presidential pressure

The National Academy of Sciences confirmed that the climate science portion of its Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence will be removed from the online edition after President Donald Trump labeled the material fraudulent. The Academy stated that the chapter is under one outlet's review because of questions about its development process, and it will not appear on the website during that time. The manual, a joint effort with the Federal Judicial Center, has guided federal judges on complex scientific matters since 1994 and previously featured peer-reviewed climate data.

Critics, including a group of Republican state attorneys general and a House Judiciary Committee spokesperson, have argued that the chapter presents a biased view favoring climate-related interests. The Federal Judicial Center also withdrew the climate section from its own online copy earlier in the year, though hard-copy versions remain available. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote the foreword for the latest edition, noted she had not read the climate chapter but was aware of the controversy.