TN Note: The religious nature of climate-change dogma cannot be dismissed: If you don't believe their way, you deserve to be punished and probably will be. It is reminiscent of Al Gore's statement in March 2015 that "climate change deniers must be punished." America was founded on the principle of free speech and the right to dissent, but the climate-change believers quickly dismiss that.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in trying to prosecute ExxonMobil for supposedly lying to its shareholders and the public about climate change, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported that Harris is investigating what ExxonMobil "knew about global warming and what the company told investors."

Neither Harris nor Schneiderman recognizes the outrageousness of what they are doing—which amounts censoring or restricting speech and debate on what is a contentious scientific theory. In fact, they want not just to stop anyone who questions the global warming theory from being able to speak; they want to punish them with possible civil sanctions or even criminal penalties. As I said before about Schneiderman, Harris needs a remedial lesson in the First Amendment.

Perhaps we should investigate what Harris "knows" about global warming or climate change, which Harris (and Schneiderman) treats as if it is a proven, unassailable, incontrovertible fact. However, as the Heritage Foundation's Nicolas Loris has pointed out, "flaws discovered in the scientific assessment of climate change have shown that the scientific consensus is not as settled as the public had been led to believe."

According to Loris, leaked emails and documents from various universities and researchers have "revealed conspiracy, exaggerated warming data, possibly illegal destruction and manipulation of data, and attempts to freeze out dissenting scientists from publishing their work in reputable journals." Furthermore, the "gaffes" that have been exposed in the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports "have only increased skepticism" about the credibility of this scientific theory.