[7][8][9] CSLDF was co-founded by Joshua Wolfe and Scott Mandia, a physical sciences professor at Suffolk County Community College, to help defray the legal costs of a lawsuit against the University of Virginia and Dr. Michael Mann.
[12] The organization reported a spike in cases during the Trump Administration's government-wide effort to stop work on climate change, representing over 300 requests for assistance.
[18] In February 2017, CSLDF filed an amicus brief in a FOIA litigation, urging the District of Columbia court to protect roughly 8,000 emails written and received by federal climate scientists.
[2] In July 2017, CSLDF filed an amicus brief asking the Arizona Court of Appeals to protect scientists from intrusive open record requests.
[3][4][5] In early 2017, CSLDF began building a national legal network to help scientists at public and private universities in the United States.