We’re fighting attacks on science. Here’s how you can help.

We’re pausing mid-year to reflect on what we’ve accomplished so far in 2018 — and to ask for your help.

Today’s political environment is extremely dangerous for science and scientists. But support from our donors guarantees that we can continue to confront the challenges awaiting researchers this year and prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.

When you donate to CSLDF this summer, your contribution will be doubled thanks to Charles Zeller, one of our founding board members, who is matching all donations, dollar for dollar, up to $50,000. Your gift will immediately be put to use protecting science.

Here’s what our community has enabled us to achieve in the last six months: 

• To date, we’ve provided free legal advice and direct representation to 19 researchers on issues ranging from open records to scientific integrity complaints. We expect to exceed the number of scientists we helped in 2017.

• We’re documenting attempts by the Trump administration to restrict science. As of today, the Silencing Science Tracker, our project with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, contains 135 entries — and counting. Read about it in The New Republic, Scientific American, and Think Progress.

• We hosted a session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, where attorneys from CSLDF and the ACLU discussed steps scientists can take to avoid ending up in political crosshairs.
• We hired a new attorney, bringing our total staff to five. Augusta Wilson came to us from NYU Law School’s Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law. At CSLDF, she’s focused on defending scientists from threats and educating researchers on how to protect themselves.
• Our attorneys authored op-eds in The Hill on how the Trump administration is undermining science and the ways Big Tobacco’s smoke and mirrors tactics are being revived by the EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s proposed science transparency policy.
• Among our recent publications is a first-of-its-kind guide to the research protections available under state open records laws. It’s designed to help scientists understand how the laws may affect their work and to help lawmakers to realize the implications of not protecting scientific research.
• We expanded our Campus Reps initiative and held a third program training in April. As a result, there are now 23 law professors across the United States providing education and assistance to scientists at their institutions.

• We continue to publish Scientists’ Stories, which focus on how attacks and anti-science actions impact researchers, both personally and professionally. The most recent profiles are of Naomi Oreskes, a science historian, earth scientist, and author, and Sarah Myhre, a climate scientist and advocate for women’s rights.

Our generous donors made all of this work possible. If you haven’t already, please make a tax-deductible donation today. Every gift ensures that we’re able to monitor and respond to attacks on science.

Many thanks for your support and interest in our work.