Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,
President Donald Trump has ordered federal officials to review conduct related to climate guidance included in a scientific reference manual for federal judges, which he described as politically biased and based on discredited science.
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on July 6, 2026. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images"These Manuals have been totally discredited," Trump said in a June 19 post on Truth Social.
He was referring to a February decision by the U.S. federal judiciary to withdraw the climate science chapter of the newest edition of its "Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence."
The manual is published by the judiciary's research arm, the Federal Judicial Center, in cooperation with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which includes the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences is an independent nonprofit organization chartered by Congress in 1863 that receives federal funding to provide scientific advice to the government.
The manual, in its fourth edition, was released in December.
Judges rely on the manual "in identifying issues commonly in dispute and to help judges reach an informed and reasoned assessment of those issues based on expert evidence that is faithful to the law and within the boundaries of scientifically sound knowledge," according to the Federal Judicial Center's website.
The guidance is not binding but can help federal judges and others in handlin
