Newsom repeals California law restricting doctors from freely sharing all COVID information
October 03, 2023 01:08 AM
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) repealed a law on Monday that disciplined doctors for sharing information that may depart from the “contemporary scientific consensus” on COVID-19 with their patients.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance waged a hard-fought legal battle in Hoeg v. Newsom to defend numerous California doctors and the First Amendment. The repeal of AB 2098 marks a win in NCLA’s fight against government censorship.
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“Congratulations to Drs. Høeg, Duriseti, Khatibi, Kheriaty, and Mazolewski on today’s victory! Their early and unrelenting objections to this unconstitutional law paved the way for its repeal,” Mark Chenoweth, NCLA president and general counsel, said on Monday.
He added, “NCLA is proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with doctors who cared more about the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship and the First Amendment than about bowing to the State’s or Medical Board’s ‘politically correct’ consensus views.”
A federal district judge had granted NCLA’s motion for preliminary injunction in January, preventing the statute from taking effect, and then in September, the organization filed a motion for summary judgment to permanently block AB 2098 from being enforced. The governor responded just days later with a repeal of the statute.
Newsom did express “concern” when he initially signed the bill into law in 2022.
“I am concerned about the chilling effect other potential laws may have on physicians and surgeons who need to be able to effectively talk to their patients about the risks and benefits of treatments for a disease that appeared in just the last few years,” he said in a letter to the members of the California State Assembly.
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The NCLA lawsuit represented Drs. Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi in Høeg, et al. v. Newsom, et al.
NCLA was created as a nonprofit civil rights legal group meant to help protect one’s constitutional rights from violations created by the unlawful use of power of state and federal agencies.