The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) is supposed to serve as the chief research and educational arm of the American judicial branch. While a unique taxpayer-funded agency separate from the courts, it is to have “no policy-making or enforcement authority” but also provide “accurate, objective information and education and to encourage thorough and candid analysis of policies, practices, and procedures.”
What’s become clear in recent years, however, is that this ostensibly nonpartisan organization has had its fair share of indulging left-wing activism — particularly in the area of so-called “climate science.”
The FJC endured heavy criticism earlier this year after it was revealed that footnotes and citations to notable left-wing climate activists and advocates were included in the latest edition of its Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. The manual is designed to guide and inform federal judges in their assessment of science-related matters in cases that come before the bench.
Backlash to the “Reference Guide on Climate Science” ultimately prompted the FJC to retract the section, with Congress also signaling its willingness to tackle the issue. But the story doesn’t end there.
A deep dive into the situation reveals the left-wing partisanship of the climate guide’s authors and how these actors’ work sought to influence the operations of a key branch of government.
Meet the Authors: Jessica Wentz
According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — which co-authored the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence alongside the FJC and still posts the manual’s climate section on its website — the “Reference Guide on Climate Science” was authored by Jessica Wentz and Radley Horton. Wentz serves as a non-resident senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, while Horton is a professor at Columbia University’s Climate School.
While Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino previously detailed Wentz’s past role as a “climate activist” involved in “environmental litigation” favoring left-wing climate policies, a closer look at the Columbia senior fellow’s X feed shows just how far-reaching her beliefs are.
Wentz posted a tweet on Dec. 1, 2022, seemingly suggesting that disagreement with the left’s climate agenda is equivalent to “disinformation,” a term leftists use to silence debate and — in the case of the Biden administration — use as a pretext to censor dissenting voices.
In the post, Wentz expressed excitement about collaborating with an Oxford professor on a project “examining how plaintiffs can establish a causal link” between so-called “disinformation” and climate-related “damages” in their lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. The “focus” of this project, she noted, “is on climate #disinformation, but our analysis is relevant to cases involving other public deception schemes as well.”
Wentz separately reposted a September 2022 tweet from an Obama-era OSHA official, who highlighted an upcoming event listing Wentz as a participant. Titled “Accountability for the Deception Industry,” the attached flyer for the forum promised attendees a “public conversation with researchers, legal scholars, and social scientists on the future of accountability for the industry of deception.”
“How can corporate purveyors of disinformation and deception on climate change and toxic chemicals be held accountable for the disastrous impact of their lies?” the former Obama official wrote.
Wentz’s apparent infatuation with pushing back on what she believes to be “disinformation” is not limited to environmental issues, however.
The Columbia senior fellow notably retweeted a December 2021 post that included a Nature article and a quote from former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who played a major role spreading actual disinformation during the Covid outbreak. In the post, the user cited remarks Collins gave to Nature, in which he said, “I wish we had more insights from behavioural social science research into how this has come to pass, and why [disinformation] could have gotten so completely widespread.”
“Some of us have been begging scientists to pay attention to this for years,” the user wrote in the post retweeted by Wentz.
Wentz has also not been shy about sharing her disdain for President Donald Trump.
The climate “expert” retweeted a January 2022 post accusing Trump of doing “damage to science.” More notably, she reposted a June 1, 2020, tweet by TV writer Ben Wexler that compared the Republican president to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.
“Leaders who have hidden in a bunker and gassed their own citizens include Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump,” Wexler wrote, seemingly pushing the debunked lie that Trump had tear gas used against peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators to clear an area for a photo op.
Wentz separately signaled agreement with a different user’s post in January 2023, in which the individual lamented “how deep misogyny runs in our culture and how much crap the most amazing and talented people have to deal with just because they have a uterus.”
Meet the Authors: Radley Horton
Much like his climate guide co-author, Radley Horton’s X feed discloses his apparent affinity for left-wing environmental policy and alarmism.
The Columbia professor retweeted a post by Lehman College that touted a March 2021 “Bronx Environmental Summit,” in which he was listed as a keynote speaker. The university suggested that speakers would address the question: “How do we move from #EnvironmentalJustice to #EnvironmentalEquity in the Bronx+beyond?”
“Together, we’ll explore how climate policies and initiatives aimed at addressing the world’s most pervasive environmental and public health crises can be shaped to bring environmental equity to the Bronx and beyond,” a registration page for the event reads.
Horton has also reposted various tweets centered around the use of the legal system to tackle perceived climate issues. That detail is notable given that Horton co-authored part of the FJC manual intended to advise federal judges on “climate science.”
Horton retweeted a June 2019 post in which the user quoted from a linked Forbes article titled “Oil And Gas Giants Spend Millions Lobbying To Block Climate Change Policies [Infographic].” While quoting from the piece about oil and gas companies’ lobbying efforts, the user wrote, “This is about the people vs. the elites.”
Horton subsequently reposted a similar tweet the following month, which touted how “Lawyers & scientists [are] working increasingly together on how science & law can be used to speed up climate action.”
The Columbia professor has also used his social media presence to elevate the left’s so-called “racial justice” agenda.
He retweeted a June 2020 post hyping a strike-type event at Columbia, in which attendees would “discuss actionable plans to help combat structural racism and anti-Blackness in the academic community.” The tweet included a poster of BLM demonstrators and language such as “Black Lives Matter” and “#ShutDownSTEM.”
Horton reposted a separate June 2020 tweet touting an article titled “How you can be an ally in the fight for racial justice,” in which the author tells white people to “own your privilege.”
The Columbia professor notably signed onto a letter alongside other “climate scientists” urging the Democratic National Committee to host a “formal Climate Debate” for the party’s 2020 presidential candidates to “educate the public about a crisis that is rapidly becoming the defining challenge of the 21st century.”
The Climate Crowd’s Growing Influence
This snapshot into Wentz and Horton’s respective backgrounds raises alarm bells about how the left has infiltrated supposedly nonpartisan entities like the Federal Judicial Center. What were intended to be neutral federal agencies have slowly been hijacked by activists seeking to advance a leftist worldview — one which is now intruding its way into America’s federal court system.
Increased public scrutiny and greater congressional oversight of the FJC and its activities have clearly elevated these major problems into the national spotlight. Whether any meaningful action will be taken to ensure they’re addressed, however, remains to be seen.
