For the third time, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a Florida law that keeps Florida doctor from discussing gun ownership with patients. The three-judge panel said the law protects privacy of patients without unduly limiting the right of the doctor to discuss firearms in general. (Ocala Star Banner, December 15, 2015, by The News Service of Florida)
The progress of the law is of note around the country as state legislators may want to pass laws gagging doctors on gun ownership. The Florida federal appeals court has thus far firmly ruled that privacy and gun ownership rights trump the First Amendment. (FindLaw, December 17, 2015, by Jonathan R. Tung, JD)
Law professor Eugene Volokh said the 11th circuit’s decision’s argument that the Florida law passed strict scrutiny was wrong: “…because strict scrutiny is the standard for evaluating content-based speech restrictions generally, and not just doctor-patient or professional-client speech restrictions, the error risks undermining free speech rights more broadly. In fact, much of the argument that the 11th Circuit panel accepted is structurally very similar to arguments used for restrictions on ‘hate speech,’ campus speech codes and the like.” (The Washington Post, December 16, 2015)