The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Florida could enforce its law muzzling doctors who wish to speak with patients about gun ownership and safety issues. The dissenting judge thought the law violated doctors’ free speech rights. “Doctors’ jobs are hard enough when the state does not enact laws that force them to think twice about asking questions and providing information that may save lives. This law is instead designed to stop a perceived political agenda, and it is difficult to conceive of any law designed for that purpose that could withstand First Amendment scrutiny,” wrote Judge Charles Wilson. (Bradenton Herald, July 28, 2015, by Gary Fineout of the Associated Press)
Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy in The Washington Post, July 29, 2015, [link not available] also thought that restrictions on doctor-patient speech about guns ran afoul of the First Amendment. Governments could only pass such laws with important reasons for the limits, and Florida’s main argument that the law violates patient privacy did not hold up given the freedom of doctors to ask all sorts of questions about patients’ sexual practices. Volokh also argued that allowing doctors and patients to discuss gun ownership did not violate their rights to bear arms or to receive health care.