Anti-vax doctors urge SCOTUS to open airwaves to medical disinformation

WASHINGTON (CN) — Doctors skeptical of the efficacy of vaccines — represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — asked the Supreme Court for emergency intervention Monday to prevent medical boards from punishing health care workers for spreading vaccine disinformation that threatens to erode public trust in the medical profession.

“The court should speak clearly and decisively to state actors, professional organizations, other non-state actors, and the national media: Public speech does not lose its constitutional protection from government action simply because it is uttered by a health care professional, even if it is at odds with medical orthodoxy,” the doctors wrote.

A nonprofit and several doctors facing disciplinary actions claim medical organizations are trying to control physicians’ speech, evoking historical examples from Communist China, the Soviet Union and the Third Reich.

The emergency application was submitted within Justice Elena Kagan’s jurisdiction, but, in an unusual move, doctors requested the full court review the petition. Whether an emergency application is referred to all the nine justices is typically decided by the justices with authority over the region’s emergency appeals.

“Applicants are requesting that this honorable justice refer this matter to the entire court so that it can reiterate the bedrock First Amendment principle that the viewpoint public/soapbox speech of physicians, and the public’s right to hear that speech, is accorded ‘robust’ protection by the First Amendment, and that any government attempt to restrict, censor or sanction such speech is subject to strict scrutiny,” the doctors wrote.

Represented by former independent presidential candidate and known vaccine skeptic RFK Jr., the doctors requested an order preventing “misinformation” claims from stripping physicians of their First Amendment protections.

Since dropping out of the 2024 race, RFK Jr. has endorsed former President Donald Trump and is expected to have a role in public health if Trump wins the election.

In July 2021, the Federation of State Medical Boards warned doctors that spreading Covid-19 vaccine information may put their medical licenses at risk. In a press release, the federation said licensed physicians had an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in the best interest of their patients, providing factual information that is scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health.

Ten health care workers in Washington state have been punished since the state’s medical commission adopted the federation’s policy. Dr. Richard Eggleston and Dr. Thomas Siler faced sanctions for articles pushing conspiracy theories about vaccines and recommending the public treat Covid-19 with hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin — though the efficacies of both as treatments for Covid have been widely debunked.

“The commission was dead wrong in its scientific gobbledygook explanation about how the vaccines confer long-term immunity, prevent infection and transmission,” the doctors wrote. “Further, the public has a right to know that the inventors of the PCR test stated that it is not an effective tool for diagnosing Covid-19.”

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington dismissed the doctors’ case in May. The Ninth Circuit is scheduled to resolve the case in the coming months but refused to issue an injunction pending appeal.

Doctors asked the Supreme Court to pause all proceedings against them and suggested the justices could convert the emergency application to a petition for certiorari to consider the case during the 2024 term.

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