{"id":859,"date":"2023-01-31T03:26:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T03:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=859"},"modified":"2023-01-31T03:26:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T03:26:43","slug":"judge-blocks-californias-covid-misinformation-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2023\/01\/31\/judge-blocks-californias-covid-misinformation-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge blocks California\u2019s covid misinformation law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Image:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On January 25, the case of Hoeg v. Newsom<\/em> prompted a federal judge to pause California\u2019s covid misinformation and disinformation law for violating the First and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five doctors who are plaintiffs in the case say Assembly Bill 2098 violates their constitutional rights. These include Drs. Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected officials, including the president and members of the Medical Board of California, are named as defendants in the case (and there is also a second lawsuit, separate but related in nature, called Hoang v. Bonta<\/em> that makes similar allegations).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB 2098 puts a muzzle on California doctors, preventing them from providing information to their patients that the state deems to be \u201cmisinformation\u201d or \u201cdisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors who advise and treat their patients based on science rather than lies face the potential loss of their medical license under AB 2098. (Related: Learn more about AB 2098 and what it threatens to do to California\u2019s already corrupt medical system.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing the merits of these cases, Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled it plausible that the Medical Board of California could be in direct violation of state law with AB 2098 \u201cgiven the ambiguity of the term \u2018scientific consensus\u2019 and of the definition of \u2018misinformation\u2019 as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause the definition of misinformation \u2018fails to provide a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what is prohibited, [and] is so standardless that it authorizes or encourages seriously discriminatory enforcement,\u2019 the provision is unconstitutionally vague,\u201d Shubb decided, noting that his ruling weighs in favor of the plaintiffs having standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccordingly, the court concludes that plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their vagueness challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB 2098 is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of doctors in the Golden State<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Newsom signed AB 2098 into law last September, and it came into effect on January 1 of this year. It defines misinformation as \u201cfalse information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus,\u201d as well as prohibits physicians from putting forth \u201cmisinformation 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any doctor in California who deviates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) guidance concerning covid \u2013 no matter how outlandish \u2013 is now practicing medicine in violation of AB 2098.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe state medical board is required by law to act against any licensed doctor charged with unprofessional conduct,\u201d reported The Epoch Times<\/em>. \u201cThe court\u2019s ruling effectively halts the law while the legal challenge plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Civil Liberties Alliance (ACLA), the legal organization representing the doctors, maintains that AB 2098 puts its clients in a difficult position. They are no longer free to practice medicine, but are instead now being forced to lie to their patients and deprive them of information that the state of California has deemed as \u201cfalse\u201d or \u201cmisleading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB 2098 stands in contrast to the First Amendment, ACLA says, which protects the rights of all Americans \u2013 including doctors \u2013 to speak and express themselves freely. Free speech doesn\u2019t end where medicine begins, in other words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are being put between a rock and a hard place, fearing repercussions for acting in their patients\u2019 best interests by honestly giving them the information they believe their patients need in order to make informed care decisions,\u201d ACLA wrote in a summary of the case shared on its website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 25, the case of Hoeg v. Newsom prompted a federal judge to pause California\u2019s covid misinformation and disinformation law for violating the First and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. Five doctors who are plaintiffs in the case say…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}