90 Conservative Groups Targeted in Climate Change Racketeering Suit

From the political campaigns, to college campuses, and now with  global warming, it is astonishing to see the Democrats look for ways to silence all opposition and to cancel the First Amendment right to free speech. It is especially amazing in relation to the global warming proponents because over the last decade their research has been shown to be doctored, the impact of global warming has been recognized as negligible, and they have been exposed in a number of conspiracy activities when their emails were released.

If anything, many of their members should be in jail for illegal activities and for taking billions of dollars in tax revenues to support their dishonest scheme. Instead, they prefer to silence all opposition and avoid all debate since it is increasingly clear that their theory is full of holes and very self serving.

In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.”

The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups to use the legal system against companies and organizations that disagree with and advocate against Democratic policies to address global climate change.

Those organizations include some of the nation’s preeminent conservative and libertarian nonprofit groups. The AG is requesting Exxon Mobil communications with the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Federalist Society, the Hoover Institution, the Reason Foundation, and the Mercatus Institute, among other groups.

One target of the subpoena, the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, has already publicly responded to Walker. Its attorney called a separate subpoena received by the group “a blatant attempt to intimidate and harass an organization for advancing views that you oppose.”

Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commissioner and a senior legal fellow at Heritage, called the subpoena “a truly outrageous abuse of [the attorney general’s] authority and a misuse of the law.”

“This investigation is intended to silence and chill any opposition,” von Spakovsky wrote. “It is disgraceful and contemptible behavior by public officials who are willing to exploit their power to achieve ideological ends.

Walker’s subpoena is part of a coordinated effort by Democratic attorneys general spearheaded by New York’s Eric Schneiderman and undertaken in consultation and cooperation with leading environmental advocacy groups.

At the meeting, RFF, Greenpeace, other environmental groups discussed ways to “delegitimize [ExxonMobil] as a political actor,” “force officials to disassociate themselves from Exxon,” and “drive divestment from Exxon,” according to a copy of the meeting agenda obtained by the Washington Free Beacon last month.

Emails subsequently obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute show that staffers at groups involved in the effort then briefed aides to those AGs. They discussed using “climate change litigation” to advance their political goals.

Walker’s subpoena is itself of dubious legality, according to some legal experts.

“What they’re doing looks like a concerted scheme to restrict the First Amendment free speech rights of people they don’t agree with,” itself a potential violation of federal law, wrote University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds.

One of the worst actions that the Obama administration has fomented and encouraged is the politicization of the Justice Department and Democrat Attorneys General in the various states. The Justice System should be pristine and absolutely impartial in carrying out its duties and enforcing the law, but Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder turned the department into another arm of the Democrat party.

And the fact that this effort is designed to encourage divestment from Exxon and cost the company millions or billions of dollars, regardless of any attendant legal outcomes or costs regarding global warming, is simply evil. It should result in severe punishment for those conspiring against a private company that is merely exercising its right of free speech about a scientific theory that is very much unsettled. Obama and his entire administration have been very active in picking winners and losers in the private economy, and for that he should join his other operatives for a long stay in federal prison.

Source: freebeacon.com