Former NBA player John Stockton with the Utah Jazz is suing Washington state officials over their alleged censorship of physicians who questioned the COVID narrative.
Children’s Health Defense, a medical freedom advocacy organization, joined Mr. Stockton in the lawsuit, and both parties are being represented by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mr. Stockton told Fox News that the goal of the lawsuit is freedom.
“If these brilliant people who we have in our culture can’t speak when they know their truth—their truths—we’re deprived of that opportunity to hear what wisdom they have to share,” Mr. Stockton said.
The lawsuit accuses the Washington Medical Commission (WMC) of launching a crusade against physicians who shared information that countered what mainstream public health officials were saying about COVID-19.
The WMC has investigated and prosecuted up to 60 physicians, the lawsuit states, “based on what the First Amendment calls pure or soapbox speech, meaning written or verbal communications to the public (as opposed to a physician’s communications to an individual patient as part of a doctor/patient interaction).”
“There is no place for the government, under the guise of regulating physicians and protecting the public, to censure, restrict or sanction the content and viewpoint of the publicly expressed views of physicians on Covid or any other subject, just because the government does not like the message or thinks it is wrong,” the lawsuit says.
Physicians Targeted by WMC
According to the lawsuit, its purpose is to protect the First Amendment rights of physicians who were punished for their use of soapbox speech and to stop the WMC from prosecuting them.
“We urge the Court to stop the Commission’s widespread and systematic violation of the First Amendment rights of physicians and the public at large, as quickly as possible, in accordance with First Amendment procedural remedies and then permanently, via permanent injunctive relief,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit cited a July 2021 Federation of State Medical Boards press release that threatened physicians who “generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation” with disciplinary action from their state medical boards.
“The Federation’s press release was not accompanied by any kind of white paper or legal analysis which opined that a medical board could constitutionally sanction a licensee for speaking out in public on a matter of public importance, perhaps because for seventy-five years, justices of the Supreme Court and lower court judges, including in this federal circuit, have stated that such action by professional boards is unconstitutional,” the lawsuit says. “On September 22, 2021, the Commission voted to adopt a guidance policy similar but broader than the Federation’s press release, suggesting that the Commission could discipline physicians for public information beyond the Covid-19 vaccines.”
Mr. Stockton’s seasonal basketball tickets at his alma mater, Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, were revoked in 2022 for his refusal to wear a mask to games or to get vaccinated.
Mr. Stockton, along with other athletes such as New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former NFL player Ken Ruettgers have endorsed Mr. Kennedy for president.
In addition to Children’s Health Defense, the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Drs. Richard Eggleston, Thomas Siler, and Daniel Moynihan.
Dr. Eggleston and Dr. Siler were prosecuted by the WMC for “the public dissemination of information contrary to the government-approved Covid narrative.”
Dr. Moynihan, though not the subject of prosecution, says in the lawsuit that the WMC’s actions have chilled his speech, which prevents him from speaking out against the “Commission-sanctioned narrative.”
“Further, because of the prosecution of other physicians, his access to information about COVID from knowledgeable Washington licensed physicians is being infringed,” the lawsuit says.
‘An Act of Moral Turpitude’
Richard Jaffe, an attorney representing the plaintiffs with Mr. Kennedy, told Fox News that the WMC has taken the position that speaking out against the mainstream COVID narrative “is an act of moral turpitude” which they believe gives them the authority to investigate and prosecute physicians.
“To me, that’s kind of crazy,” he said. “We have a history—at least going back 75 years—allowing professionals to speak out in public. I don’t think there’s any court case that’s ever held that a professional can be silenced in terms of his speech to the public. I mean, that’s a new concept. Hopefully, that’s not going to work. But nobody has challenged Washington, yet, so far.”
The lawsuit calls for injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment that Washington health officials have violated the right to free speech.
The Epoch Times contacted the WMC and the Washington State Attorney General’s office for comment.
From The Epoch Times
