Washington D.C. — On Wednesday, the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute filed suit on behalf of Doctors Michael Couris and Michael Fitzgibbons challenging a new California state law that restricts doctors’ First Amendment free speech rights by threatening disciplinary action against their license for discussing with patients anything about COVID-19 that the State views as “misinformation.”
The law, AB 2098, signed by Governor Newsom on September 30, 2022, deems it unprofessional conduct for a California licensed physician or surgeon to share disinformation related to COVID-19. But the bill defines “misinformation” as “contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus.” The law covers all topics related to COVID-19, including risks, prevention, treatment, and the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Yet as the past three years have shown, the scientific consensus on COVID has repeatedly shifted.
California has overstepped the boundaries set by the First Amendment. The law infringes on the doctor-patient relationship; stifles scientific inquiry integral to the progress of medical science; and limits the free and candid exchange of information between doctors and their patients that the Supreme Court has recognized as essential and potentially life-saving. HLLI seeks to stop AB 2098 and California’s unconstitutional attempt to take away the First Amendment right of doctors to speak and patients to hear and ask questions of their doctors.
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Founded in 2019, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute is a nonprofit public interest law firm that challenges improper restrictions on speech, administrative and regulatory actions, and abuses of the class action and civil justice system that exceed constitutional limits, promote rent-seeking, or otherwise improperly created deadweight loss. As a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, HLLI relies on support from individuals and foundations that share a commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited government.
HLLI’s website is http://hlli.org.
For more information about this case, please contact:
Ted Frank, 703-203-3848, ted.frank@hlli.org