Feds failing in bid to take a supercomputer from a climate research center

联邦政府试图接管气候研究中心超级计算机的计划受阻

In December, the Trump administration abruptly announced it would shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a Boulder, Colorado-based facility that helps researchers perform studies of weather, climate, atmospheric chemistry, and more. The news came as a shock, given that the government had never identified serious deficiencies in the management of NCAR and its associated supercomputing center in Wyoming. Nevertheless, the government ordered the University Consortium for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which manages NCAR on behalf of the National Science Foundation, to help it prepare to transfer the Wyoming to a different operator. UCAR sued the government and, on Monday, won a preliminary injunction that places the transfer of the facility on hold.

去年 12 月，特朗普政府突然宣布将关闭国家大气研究中心（NCAR）。该中心位于科罗拉多州博尔德市，旨在协助研究人员进行天气、气候、大气化学等方面的研究。这一消息令人震惊，因为政府此前从未指出 NCAR 及其位于怀俄明州的配套超级计算中心在管理上存在任何严重缺陷。尽管如此，政府仍下令代表国家科学基金会（NSF）管理 NCAR 的大学大气研究联盟（UCAR）配合，准备将怀俄明州的设施移交给其他运营商。UCAR 随后起诉了政府，并于周一获得了一项初步禁令，暂时搁置了该设施的移交工作。

NCAR is what is termed a “Federally-Funded Research and Development Center” meant to support researchers in the academic community. Rather than having its own research agenda, it provides facilities, equipment, and expertise to support projects that are too large or complex for researchers to pursue on their own. NCAR has been around since the early 1960s and has become a critical resource for the global atmospheric science community. So, it was a shock for many that the government would attempt to shut it down and distribute the resources it maintains, such as research aircraft and the supercomputing center. The government solicited public feedback on that decision, but UCAR took no chances and sued.

NCAR 被称为“联邦资助研发中心”，旨在为学术界的研究人员提供支持。它没有独立的研究议程，而是通过提供设施、设备和专业知识，来支持那些对研究人员个人而言过于庞大或复杂的项目。NCAR 自 20 世纪 60 年代初成立以来，已成为全球大气科学界的重要资源。因此，政府试图关闭该中心并拆分其维护的资源（如研究飞机和超级计算中心）令许多人感到震惊。政府曾就该决定征求公众意见，但 UCAR 为保险起见，选择了提起诉讼。

As part of that suit, UCAR sought a preliminary injunction that would put the transfer of its supercomputing center on hold. To get that injunction, UCAR would have to show that it was likely to prevail and that it would experience irreparable harm if the court didn’t intervene. The judge in this case, Brooke Jackson, ruled that the issue was one his court could address based on the Administrative Procedures Act. The government had argued that no decision had been made, and therefore that there were no grounds for the suit. But Jackson noted that as early as February—before the public comment period on the decision had even closed—government officials were telling UCAR that “[the National Science Foundation] has decided to transfer stewardship” of the supercomputing center.

作为诉讼的一部分，UCAR 寻求获得一项初步禁令，以搁置其超级计算中心的移交。为了获得该禁令，UCAR 必须证明其胜诉的可能性，并证明如果法院不进行干预，它将遭受不可弥补的损害。本案法官布鲁克·杰克逊（Brooke Jackson）裁定，根据《行政程序法》，该问题属于其法院管辖范围。政府曾辩称尚未做出任何决定，因此诉讼缺乏依据。但杰克逊指出，早在 2 月份——即该决定的公众意见征询期结束之前——政府官员就已经告知 UCAR，“（国家科学基金会）已决定移交”超级计算中心的管理权。

By early March, a government program director was telling UCAR that he needed to “get this done quickly” and that documentation of the supercomputing center needed to be handed over “yesterday.” Even now, months after the deadline for public feedback on the decision, the government admits it hasn’t fully evaluated the comments it received. “The sequence of events strongly suggests that the outcome was predetermined,” the decision notes. For all of those reasons, he concluded that the NSF had already reached a final decision on the transfer of the supercomputing center, and that decision was subject to review under the Administrative Procedures Act, which is what the rest of the case hinged on.

到 3 月初，一位政府项目主管告诉 UCAR，他需要“尽快完成此事”，并且超级计算中心的文件需要“昨天就移交”。即使在公众意见征询截止日期过去数月后的今天，政府仍承认尚未完全评估所收到的意见。裁决书中写道：“这一系列事件强烈暗示结果早已内定。”基于上述所有原因，法官得出结论：NSF 已经就超级计算中心的移交做出了最终决定，而该决定受《行政程序法》的审查约束，这也是本案后续审理的关键所在。

As in so many other cases that have made their way into the courts, the government does not seem to have been prepared to offer much of a defense of its actions. The Administrative Procedures Act prohibits actions that are “arbitrary and capricious,” and Jackson found that there was a “failure to articulate any rationale” for the decision to relieve UCAR of its management role. He noted that some internal documents introduced as evidence indicated that there was dissatisfaction with NCAR’s pursuit of climate research and hosting of scientific programs intended to improve minority participation. But the government chose not to use those as arguments, so the court didn’t need to evaluate them.

正如许多进入法院审理的其他案件一样，政府似乎并未准备好为其行为提供充分的辩护。《行政程序法》禁止“武断和反复无常”的行为，而杰克逊法官发现，政府在决定解除 UCAR 的管理职责时，“未能阐明任何理由”。他指出，作为证据提交的一些内部文件显示，政府对 NCAR 从事气候研究以及主办旨在提高少数群体参与度的科学项目感到不满。但政府选择不将这些作为辩护理由，因此法院无需对此进行评估。

UCAR, in contrast, introduced significant evidence that the decision to harm NCAR was part of a range of measures meant to pressure Colorado’s Democratic governor about an unrelated matter. Given that, the court concluded that forcing UCAR to give up its supercomputing center was arbitrary and capricious, and thus violated the Administrative Procedures Act. UCAR was also able to demonstrate that it was suffering irreparable harm due to the uncertainty about its future. It has experienced unusually high levels of attrition among its staff, who have a rare set of technical skills and require additional training after hiring. And it expects it will be difficult to find replacements for them.

相比之下，UCAR 提交了大量证据，表明损害 NCAR 的决定是一系列旨在就无关事项向科罗拉多州民主党州长施压的措施之一。鉴于此，法院裁定，强迫 UCAR 交出超级计算中心的行为是武断且反复无常的，因此违反了《行政程序法》。UCAR 还证明，由于未来充满不确定性，它正在遭受不可弥补的损害。其员工流失率异常高，而这些员工拥有稀缺的技术技能，且入职后需要额外培训，UCAR 预计很难找到替代人选。

Given those circumstances, Jackson has issued an injunction blocking the government from forcing NCAR or UCAR to give up any resources related to the supercomputing center. There are still additional threats to NCAR, including breaking it up, transferring other resources, and even selling its Boulder headquarters. So, this victory is far from the end of the threats. But the legal issues that decided the case are likely to apply to the additional threats, unless the government has a defense that it simply chose not to present here.

鉴于这些情况，杰克逊法官发布了一项禁令，阻止政府强迫 NCAR 或 UCAR 交出与超级计算中心相关的任何资源。NCAR 仍面临其他威胁，包括被拆分、其他资源被转移，甚至其博尔德总部被出售。因此，这次胜利远未终结这些威胁。但除非政府拥有在此案中未曾提出的辩护理由，否则决定本案的法律问题很可能同样适用于这些额外的威胁。