In a lawsuit filed Monday, the university coalition that manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), in Boulder, Colo., defended it against the Trump regime’s planned breakup. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) accused the Trump White House of using the National Science Foundation (NSF) to inflict “unlawful retaliation” against the Colorado state government.
The suit cites the ongoing case Colorado v. Trump, over the Trump administration’s blockage of SNAP food benefits for the state. The judge in that case agreed the Trump regime’s administrative actions against Colorado are tied to Trump’s efforts to overturn Colorado’s conviction of county clerk Tina Peters, who conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
The lawsuit, filed by the boutique California litigation firm Hueston Hennigan on behalf of UCAR, notes a “cascading series of retaliatory measures” against UCAR and NCAR in addition to NSF’s plans to disintegrate NCAR:
Since then, the Agencies have taken concrete retaliatory actions targeting UCAR and NCAR across multiple fronts. The cascading series of retaliatory measures has included:
- NSF’s decision to divest UCAR of its stewardship of the NCARWyoming Supercomputing Center (“NWSC”) that UCAR built, financed with tax-exempt bonds, and has operated since 2012;
- NOAA’s termination of a multi-million-dollar cooperative agreement with UCAR designed to fund climate adaptation and mitigation research;
- NSF’s use of disparate and undue reporting requirements calculated to saddle UCAR and NCAR with pointless bureaucratic burdens; and
- NSF’s imposition of gag orders that unconstitutionally restrain the speech of UCAR and NCAR officials to prevent them from communicating with the public and their employees.
The defendants named for their “series of ongoing unconstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious actions” are the National Science Foundation, NSF director Brian Stone, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA director Neil Jacobs, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and OMB director Russ Vought.