University Corporation for Atmospheric Research v. National Science Foundation

The federal district court for the District of Colorado granted a preliminary injunction preventing the National Science Foundation (NSF) from transferring stewardship of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) away from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The NWSC conducts weather, climate, and atmospheric research used by governmental agencies and private companies to inform their operations and prepare for extreme weather patterns. The court rejected NSF’s challenge to its subject matter jurisdiction. The court found that NSF’s decision to divest UCAR of stewardship of NWSC was final and was determinative of UCAR’s rights and obligations, as required for jurisdiction under the Administrative Procedure Act. The court further rejected NSF’s contention that the case was not ripe for judicial review, concluding that NSF’s decision represented a final agency action that did not depend on uncertain or contingent future events and that withholding review would cause significant hardship to UCAR. In assessing UCAR’s request for a preliminary injunction, the court determined that UCAR was likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that NSF’s decision was arbitrary and capricious because NSF failed to provide an explanation for its decision to divest UCAR of stewardship over NWSC. The record showed no evidence of dissatisfaction with UCAR, and the court noted evidence in the record indicating that the decision might have been motivated by the Trump administration’s dispute with the State of Colorado. Additionally, the NSF failed to follow its own timeline for collecting public feedback before making a decision and ignored the majority of responses disfavoring transfer. The court determined that UCAR would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction, including loss of employees, potential financial impact, and damage to its institutional mission. Finally, the court found that the balance of equities favored an injunction since there was a strong public interest in efficient and uninterrupted data collection and there would be no concrete harm caused by preserving the current stewardship.

UCAR filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the defendants from divesting UCAR or NCAR of rights, resources, or responsibilities related to NWSC.

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the nonprofit research consortium that manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Colorado challenging actions taken by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and individual officials that UCAR alleged are intended to dismantle NCAR, which the complaint described as “a cornerstone of the country’s atmospheric and Earth systems research infrastructure.” The complaint alleged that UCAR and NCAR, headquartered in Boulder, were “collateral damage” in “the federal government’s campaign of retribution” against the State of Colorado for refusing to relinquish its sovereign authority over regulating elections and administering and enforcing its criminal code. The complaint alleged retaliatory measures that included divesting UCAR of its stewardship of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC), termination of a cooperative agreement between NOAA and UCAR to fund climate adaptation and mitigation research, saddling UCAR and NCAR with “disparate and undue reporting requirements,” imposition of gag orders on UCAR and NCAR officials, and plotting steps with private entities “to strip UCAR and NCAR of their resources, rights, and responsibilities.” The complaint asserted that the defendants’ actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution. UCAR alleged that the defendants’ actions posed “a direct threat to America’s national, economic, and public-health security and risks derailing the United States’ global leadership in atmospheric research, weather forecasting, and supercomputing.”