Three weeks ago I mentioned a witch hunt started by a hardcore Arizona communist named Raúl Grijalva – who is now a Congressman because the Democrats apparently consider similar individuals cool – which was inspired by some previous attacks against Willie Soon, a well-known climate skeptic from Harvard-Smithsonian.



David Legates from University of Delaware is another skeptic who has also co-authored numerous papers – some of which were sent to me by Willie – and because of his proximity to Willie, Legates was quoted as the #1 witch after Willie by Grijalva's letter that demanded to strip the university-affiliated climate skeptics of their privacy and dignity.









In the past, Legates' university had a mixed record. Sometimes they responded ethically; sometimes they co-operated with the climate terrorist movement.



For an example of the positive responses, at the end of 2009, Greenpeace wanted a "revenge" for Climategate that had shown that the climate alarmists were a bunch of organized criminals, liars, fraudsters, and bullies who had hijacked much of the scientific process in climatology. The university found a reason not to release the documents required by Greenpeace that had argued with FOIA.









Those evil folks succeeded at other moments. For example, in 2011, Legates was fired as the State Climatologist of Delaware.



As The Washington Times and Inside Climate News tell us, another example of the "good news" appeared on Monday.



University President Patrick T. Harker and Provost Domenico Grasso released a letter that would say "No" to Mr Grijalva. Among other things, it said



The University of Delaware chooses not to act in a manner inconsistent with its governing principles and contractual commitments.



...



The remaining four questions in your letter relate to research conducted by Professor Legates, who is mentioned by name in each question. The University respectfully declines to respond to those questions, which we believe intrude into areas that are protected by academic freedom.



Academic freedom is the freedom of the faculty to teach and speak out as the fruits of their research and scholarship dictate, even though their conclusions may be unpopular or contrary to public opinion.



I think it's good to appreciate even these modest signs of morality of the academic establishment. Not everyone reacts like that.Last Thursday, Arizona State University (ASU) provided comrade Grijalva with all the requested documents, except for those that the university didn't possess, related to another skeptic (or perhaps just lukewarmer), Robert Balling. The communist in the U.S. Congress will probably find nothing "useful" over there but the very fact that such people are sometimes allowed to selectively look for information in otherwise confidential documents that may be "useful" in their fight against freedom is worrisome.Perhaps to feel less guilty about his pathetic behavior, ASU President Michael Crow also attached a copy of the ASU booklet on academic freedom, suggesting that Grijalva could take it into account in his future witch hunts. Well, you shouldn't feel too innocent, Mr Crow.