{"id":1832407,"date":"2023-02-02T08:35:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T13:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1832407"},"modified":"2023-02-02T09:42:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T14:42:10","slug":"court-overturns-californias-attempt-to-silence-doctors-who-dissent-from-covid-groupthink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-overturns-californias-attempt-to-silence-doctors-who-dissent-from-covid-groupthink\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Overturns California\u2019s Attempt to Silence Doctors Who Dissent from COVID Groupthink"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcourt-overturns-californias-attempt-to-silence-doctors-who-dissent-from-covid-groupthink%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1832407&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" style=\"display: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/California-Gov.-Gavin-Newsom.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A federal judge <a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Hoeg-v.-Newsom-PI-Decision.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">halted<\/a> California\u2019s attempt to censor doctors when, last Wednesday, the court enjoined the state statute that banned medical professionals from spreading purported \u201cmisinformation\u201d or \u201cdisinformation\u201d Their patients about Covid-19. This decision is the latest victory over the authoritarian edicts, which were in place three years ago after the outbreak of the pandemic and continue to this day.<\/p>\n<p>California Gov. Gavin Newsom was elected to the legislature <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2098\">Assembly Bill 2098<\/a> (AB 2098), adding a new provision to California\u2019s extensive regulations governing the professional and ethical conduct of physicians \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/statute\/california-codes\/california-business-and-professions-code\/division-2-healing-arts\/chapter-5-medicine\/article-12-enforcement\">regulations<\/a> that ban practices ranging from human cloning to performing a pelvic exam on an unconscious or anesthetized female patient without her knowledge or consent.<\/p>\n<p>The new statute sought to stop what the legislature called a \u201cpernicious\u201d threat to public health \u2014 doctors who spread \u201cmisinformation\u201d or \u201cdisinformation\u201d to their patients about Covid-19. Specifically, AB 2098 provides:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>It shall constitute unprofessional conduct for a physician and surgeon to disseminate misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The California law defines \u201cdisinformation\u201d as \u201cmisinformation the [physician] deliberately disseminated with malicious intent or an intent to mislead,\u201d while \u201cmisinformation\u201d is \u201cfalse information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In passing the law, the California legislature made multiple \u201cfindings,\u201d including facts purveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that there is a much higher risk of death for unvaccinated individuals from Covid-19 than the vaccinated. The legislature also found that \u201cthe spread of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines has weakened public confidence and placed lives at serious risk\u201d and that \u201cmajor news outlets have reported that some of the most dangerous propagators of inaccurate information regarding the COVID-19 vaccines are licensed health care professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soon after Newsom signed AB 2098, a group of doctors and organizations representing doctors filed suit in federal court in California. The plaintiffs in <em>H\u00f8eg, et al. v. Newsom, et al.<\/em> argued the statute violated their First Amendment rights to free speech and their constitutional right to due process. The plaintiffs in <em>H\u00f8eg<\/em> then filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to prevent the state from enforcing AB 2098 until the resolution of the doctors\u2019 constitutional challenges.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, presiding Judge William Shubb, a George H.W. Bush appointee, granted the motion and entered an injunction barring California from enforcing the law.<\/p>\n<p>In his ruling, Shubb first held that the plaintiffs had \u201cstanding\u201d or the right to sue because, if allowed to go into effect, the doctors faced an actual injury in the form of disciplinary action. The court then held that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their due process claim \u2014 \u201clikelihood of success on the merits\u201d is the controlling standard at the preliminary injunction stage \u2014 because the terms \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201ccontemporary scientific consensus\u201d were unconstitutionally vague, making it impossible for a reasonable person to know what the law prohibited.<\/p>\n<p>The court further stressed that the phrase \u201ccontemporary scientific consensus\u201d lacks an understandable meaning because it has no technical meaning within the medical community and was left undefined in AB 2098. Covid-19 is a \u201cquickly evolving area of science that in many aspects eludes consensus,\u201d the court noted, reasoning that while the phrase \u201ccontrary to the standard of care\u201d is a clearly defined term in law, by adding the undefined language, \u201cfalse information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus,\u201d the California legislature made the statute \u201cgrammatically incoherent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because the court concluded the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their due process claim given the vagueness of AB 2098, Shubb held he did not need to reach the plaintiffs\u2019 argument that the California law violated the First Amendment by preventing medical professionals from openly discussing issues with Covid-19 shots, alternative treatments and therapies for Covid-19, or the merits of universal masking with their patients. Shubb, however, added that AB 2098 \u201cclearly implicates First Amendment concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following Wednesday\u2019s decision in <em>H\u00f8eg<\/em>, the corporate press quickly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/healthcare-pharmaceuticals\/california-law-aiming-curb-covid-misinformation-blocked-by-judge-2023-01-26\/\">coalesced<\/a> around the vaccine-denier narrative by highlighting that one of the plaintiffs in the case was the Children\u2019s Health Defense, an \u201cadvocacy organization\u201d connected to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Then, rather than focus on the significance of the court\u2019s decision and California\u2019s blatant violation of doctors\u2019 constitutional rights, the left-leaning media intoned that the Children\u2019s Health Defense has \u201clong promoted false information about standard childhood vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This tact tracks the media\u2019s approach to AB 2098 following its enactment, when the legacy press <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/29\/technology\/california-doctors-covid-misinformation.html\">reported<\/a> favorably on the new law, claiming the California legislature was \u201ctrying to strike a balance between free speech and public health\u201d while highlighting laws passed in other countries that criminalized the \u201cspread of vaccine misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reporting at the time also quoted supposed experts who, while admitting the law likely would not survive First Amendment scrutiny, nonetheless opined that it \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t a good idea.\u201d \u201cPeople have died because they made choices based on false information spread by people in a position to know better,\u201d one so-called expert <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/science\/story\/2022-10-06\/spreading-lies-about-covid-19-could-get-doctors-disciplined-in-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The court\u2019s decision enjoining California\u2019s AB 2098 represents a solid victory in the fight against the authoritarianism pushed under the auspices of protecting the public from Covid-19, but the sentiments voiced by the legislature and experts \u2014 that they know better \u2014 should nonetheless trouble Americans.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>Anne Courchaine is an attorney, formerly in private practice but now a stay-at-home mom, who lives with her husband and soon-to-be three children in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge halted California\u2019s attempt to censor doctors when, last Wednesday, the court enjoined the state statute that banned medical professionals from spreading purported \u201cmisinformation\u201d or \u201cdisinformation\u201d Their patients about Covid-19. This decision is the latest victory over the authoritarian edicts, which were in place three years ago after the outbreak of the pandemic &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1898386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Court Overturns California\u2019s Attempt to Silence Doctors Who Dissent from COVID Groupthink","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7900,4036,4733,4127,13729,7213,17210,15735,5796],"class_list":["post-1832407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-attempt","tag-californias","tag-court","tag-covid","tag-dissent","tag-doctors","tag-groupthink","tag-overturns","tag-silence"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Court Overturns California\u2019s Attempt to Silence Doctors Who Dissent from COVID Groupthink","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1832407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1832407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1832407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1832407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}