Liberal hypocrisy on the free exchange of ideas

The Hill reports on the subpoena CEI received as an attack on their free speech and to silence the debate on climate change. 

This was not about the right to disagree with government, the attorneys general claimed. Rather, it was about misleading the public on global warming and thus delaying efforts to combat it. And that constituted not free speech or a free exchange of ideas but fraud, punishable with criminal penalties.

They went after ExxonMobil because it allegedly knew for years the dangers of global warming but hid them from the public to increase profits. They went after groups, such as my former employer, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, because they refused to knuckle under to the government line.

The state attorneys general papered Washington with subpoenas – for donor records, internal communications and other deliberations of private groups with private contributors. But courts were not friendly to the AGs when groups such as CEI challenged the subpoenas in court, and attorneys general – led by the AG from the Virgin Islands – began to back off.

Read the full article at The Hill.