 The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF), American Meteorological Society and Union of Concerned Scientists condemned Judicial Watch, saying that the disclosure of private communications between scientists "would harm (or halt altogether) government scientists' ability to collaborate with colleagues, damage the government's ability to recruit or retain top scientists, and deter critically important research into politically charged fields like climate change".The Judicial Watch lawsuit was inspired by Rep. Lamar Smith who accused the authors of the study of "alter[ing] data" to "get the politically correct results they want.