The Supreme Court recently turned down a request from Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to protect doctors in Washington state who are being investigated for spreading false information about COVID-19.
Justice Elena Kagan denied the emergency application on behalf of the court.
Rick Jaffe, a lawyer representing the group, expressed hope that the Supreme Court would eventually clarify that the government can’t punish doctors for sharing their opinions. Kennedy, who is also listed as one of the lawyers on the case, has been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy’s group argued that investigating doctors for their views on the virus is a violation of free speech under the First Amendment.
Lower courts, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had already refused to stop investigations led by the Washington Medical Commission. They didn’t think there was enough reason to block the investigations.
Kennedy and his lawyers claimed that stopping these investigations would silence important views and hurt public debate, especially during a health crisis.
The Supreme Court didn’t even ask the state to respond, which likely means they didn’t find the case strong enough to move forward.
Two doctors, Richard Eggleston and Thomas Siler, who were under investigation for spreading misinformation about vaccines, also joined the request to the Supreme Court. A judge had previously said that the doctors spread false claims about the virus, including saying that vaccines didn’t work.
