Politics

Alleged science guy Bill Nye makes false claim about Constitution — again

Bill Nye
Bill Nye (Wikimedia Commons)

While appearing on CNN’s New Day Saturday, alleged “science guy” Bill Nye made a false claim about the Constitution, the Daily Caller reported Sunday.

“If you suppress science, if you pretend climate change isn’t a real problem, you will fall behind other countries that do invest in science, that do invest in basic research,” he said during a discussion on the so-called “March for Science.”

“And it is interesting to note, I think, that Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution refers to the progress of science and the useful arts,” he added.  “Useful arts in 18th Century usage would be what we call engineering or city planning or architecture.”

Nye, the Daily Caller said, “is referring to the Constitution’s Copyright Clause. The clause is one in a laundry list of Congress’s enumerated powers.”

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The clause actually reads:

“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

Michael Bastasch explained:  “The Copyright Clause has nothing to do with government-funded science, but everything to do with establishing a legal framework to protect intellectual property rights.”

And, he further said, it’s not the first time Nye has made this claim:

Nye’s used the argument before to underscore how “unpatriotic” it is to not have the federal government hand out billions of taxpayer dollars to universities, corporations and research institutions.

“Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution says the government shall ‘promote the progress of science and useful arts,’” Nye told Vox in 2015 — Vox didn’t correct him or fact check his claim.

“So if you’re a politician looking to derail the progress of science, I think you’re not doing your job,” Nye said. 

And, like last time, he’s 100 percent incorrect.

Which, Bastasch, said, is why Nye isn’t known as the “Constitution Guy.”

Keep in mind, Nye once suggested that those who don’t believe liberal dogma on global warming should be thrown in jail.

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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