Lawsuit lists NSF, NOAA, DOC, OMB and their directors as defendents

Mar 16, 2026

This afternoon, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) announced in a press release that it has filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Colorado against the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies to stop the proposed dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) by NSF.

UCAR is the consortium of universities and academic partners that operates NCAR utilizing funding provided through grants from NSF. 129 member institutions make up UCAR, which is governed by a board of trustees. The board consists of 12 trustees from member institutions, and 6 at-large trustees. Per the UCAR website, trustees serve three year terms and are elected by the 129 member institutions at the UCAR Annual Members Meeting.

In its press release, UCAR said their lawsuit “alleges violations of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act arising from several adverse actions taken by federal agencies over the last several months directed against NCAR and UCAR. The lawsuit requests the court to stop implementation of the actions, declare the actions unlawful, and issue an injunction to prevent further harm to NCAR and UCAR’s operations and mission. These actions pose a direct threat to national security, public safety, and economic prosperity and risk setting back the country’s global leadership in weather and space weather modeling and forecasting. We are hopeful that this lawsuit will reverse the agencies’ recent actions and prevent future agency decisions.”

The full complaint is 47 pages long, so to this point I have only quickly read through it. Having said that, my non-attorney reading is that UCAR is accusing NSF and OMB of violation of various statutes and administrative policies with the primary intent of eliminating NCAR — and the rationale for the elimination is retaliation by the Trump Administration against the state of Colorado. Additionally, NOAA and the Department of Commerce are sued for “unlawful, arbitrary and capricious” termination of NOAA grants to UCAR as part of the same retaliation campaign.

Obviously, more to come on this story as further details are released and the various players and leaders within the weather enterprise react to the lawsuit.