(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A federal judge blocked a California law that allowed the the state’s radical leftist rulers and Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom to punish doctors for sharing the so-called “misinformation” about COVID.
U.S. District Judge William Shubb this week ruled that Assembly Bill 2098, which Newsom signed in September and went into effect Jan. 1, was unconstitutional, according to the Daily Wire.
“Because the definition of misinformation ‘fails 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,’ the provision is unconstitutionally vague,” he wrote.
“Accordingly, the court concludes that plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their vagueness challenges.”
The five doctors who fought against the governor in the Hoeg v. Newsom lawsuit argued that the law was unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
The law described so-called COVID misinformation as “false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus,” the Daily Wire reported. Doctors were not allowed to provide “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.”
A nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group that represented the five doctors in the case — the New Civil Liberties Alliance — issued a statement, celebrating the court’s ruling.
“NCLA is gratified Judge Shubb has recognized that AB 2098, which seeks to punish California doctors for giving patients information that departs from the so-called contemporary scientific consensus about Covid, creates an impossible standard for physicians to follow and would result in silencing physicians who disagree with state orthodoxy,” Jenin Younces, litigation counsel for NCLA, stated.
“The speed with which he issued his decision no doubt reflects the significance of the constitutional problems the law presents, as well as the negative consequences it would have for doctor-patient relationships.”
Greg Dolin, senior litigation counsel for NCLA, also criticized Newsom’s legislation.
“This Act is a blatant attempt to silence doctors whose views, though based on thorough scientific research, deviate from the government-approved ‘party line,’” he said.
“At no point has the State of California been able to articulate the line between permissible and impermissible speech, further illustrating how problematic the statute is. NCLA is pleased the Court recognized all the problems with AB2098 and enjoined this unconstitutional law.”
