California
California’s COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ law chills constitutionally protected speech
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which Columbia authorized scholar Philip Hamburger based in 2017, cheekily describes itself as “a civil libertarian various to the ACLU that really cares concerning the rights within the Structure.” It subsequently could seem shocking that two California chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have joined the NCLA in opposing a brand new California legislation that expands the state medical board’s authority to self-discipline medical doctors for “unprofessional conduct.”
That alliance is much less shocking when you learn A.B. 2098, which threatens to punish physicians for sharing COVID-19 “misinformation” with their sufferers. The legislation, which is scheduled to take impact on January 1, defines “misinformation” as recommendation “contradicted by modern scientific consensus”—an open invitation to suppression of constitutionally protected speech.
In a federal lawsuit it filed this month on behalf of 5 California physicians, the NCLA argues that A.B. 2098 is unconstitutionally imprecise and inconsistent with the First Modification. The Justice Authorized Middle (JLC), which is representing two different medical doctors, makes related claims in a lawsuit it filed final month.
The Southern and Northern California chapters of the ACLU concur in a short they lately filed in assist of the JLC’s lawsuit. They are saying A.B. 2098, which the JLC calls the “Doctor Censorship Legislation,” is gratuitous and unconstitutional.
Legislators who supported A.B. 2098 stated they have been apprehensive that medical doctors would possibly prescribe ineffective and doubtlessly harmful therapies for COVID-19. However current rules already give California’s medical board the authority to take motion towards medical doctors for “gross negligence,” “repeated negligent acts,” “incompetence,” and “any act involving dishonesty or corruption.”
California courts “have lengthy interpreted the forms of conduct the Legislature was involved about—reminiscent of failing to supply sufferers with adequate data to make knowledgeable well being selections, committing medical fraud, and offering sufferers with medically inappropriate therapy—as falling below” that rule, the ACLU temporary notes. “Certainly, when contemplating AB 2098, the Legislature acknowledged that the [medical board] was ‘already totally succesful of bringing an accusation towards a doctor for this kind of misconduct.’”
The brand new legislation, against this, makes physicians topic to self-discipline for sharing their sincere opinions relating to COVID-19 if the medical board thinks they deviate from the “scientific consensus,” a time period the legislation doesn’t outline. That nebulous commonplace poses a due course of downside, for the reason that legislation doesn’t give medical doctors truthful discover of which conduct it reaches. It additionally poses a free speech downside, because it encourages self-censorship.
Given the “ambiguities” inherent within the state’s new definition of unprofessional conduct, the ACLU temporary says, “physicians can be loath to talk their minds and share their opinions with sufferers a few quickly evolving illness with many unknowns. At any level, the State may decide {that a} doctor has violated AB 2098 [by] sharing an unconventional opinion and go after their medical license.”
Whereas some unconventional opinions might quantity to quackery, others might in the end be vindicated. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the standard knowledge on topics reminiscent of intubation of sufferers, the utility of material face masks, isolation intervals, and the effectiveness of vaccines in stopping virus transmission has shifted repeatedly in response to rising proof.
Along with violating medical doctors’ freedom of speech, A.B. 2098 undermines that discovery course of. It tells skeptical physicians to maintain their mouths shut, lest they endanger their licenses and livelihoods by candidly sharing their opinions.
When he signed A.B. 2098 into legislation on the finish of September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged that legislative responses to COVID-19 “misinformation” may have a “chilling impact” on conversations between physicians and sufferers. However he claimed the invoice was “narrowly tailor-made” to cowl medical doctors “appearing with malicious intent” or “clearly deviating from the required commonplace of care.”
If that have been true, the legislation could be redundant. However opposite to Newsom’s wishful considering, the legislation can be enforced as written, and that prospect ought to alarm anybody who really cares concerning the rights within the Structure.
© Copyright 2022 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
California
Dickies to say goodbye to Texas, hello to Southern California
FORT WORTH, Texas — Dickies is leaving Cowtown for the California coast, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
The 102-year-old Texas workwear brand, which is owned by VF Corp., is making the move from Fort Worth to Costa Mesa in order to be closer to its sister brand, Vans.
Dickies was founded in Fort Worth in 1922 by E.E. “Colonel” Dickie. Today, Dickies Arena is the entertainment hub of the city and home of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.
The company is expected to make the move by May. Approximately 120 employees will be affected, the report said.
By moving one of its offices closer to the other, VF Corp. says it can “consolidate its real estate portfolio,” as well as “create an even more vibrant campus,” Ashley McCormack, director of external communications at VF Corp. said in the report.
Dickies isn’t the only rugged brand owned by VF Corp. The company also has ownership of Timberland, The North Face and JanSport.
VF Corp. acquired Dickies in 2017 for $820 million.
“Their contributions to our city’s culture, economy and identity are immeasurable,” District 9 City Council member Elizabeth Beck, who represents the area of downtown Fort Worth where Dickies headquarters is currently located, said in a statement to the Fort Worth Report. “While we understand their business decision, it is bittersweet to see a company that started right here in Fort Worth take this next step. We are committed to supporting the employees who remain here and will work to honor the lasting imprint Dickies has left on our community.”
California
Caitlyn Jenner says she'd 'destroy' Kamala Harris in hypothetical race to be CA gov
SAN FRANCISCO – Caitlyn Jenner, the gold-medal Olympian-turned reality TV personality, is considering another run for Governor of California. This time, she says, if she were to go up against Vice President Kamala Harris, she would “destroy her.”
Jenner, who publicly came out as transgender nearly 10 years ago, made a foray into politics when she ran as a Republican during the recall election that attempted to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. Jenner only received one percent of the vote and was not considered a serious candidate.
Jenner posted this week on social media that she’s having conversations with “many people” and hopes to have an announcement soon about whether she will run.
Caitlyn Jenner speaks at the 4th annual Womens March LA: Women Rising at Pershing Square on January 18, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)
She has also posted in Trumpian-style all caps: “MAKE CA GREAT AGAIN!”
As for VP Harris, she has not indicated any future plans for when she leaves office. However, a recent poll suggests Harris would have a sizable advantage should she decide to run in 2026. At that point, Newsom cannot run again because of term limits.
If Jenner decides to run and wins, it would mark the nation and state’s first transgender governor.
California
Northern California 6-year-old, parents hailed as heroes for saving woman who crashed into canal
LIVE OAK — A six-year-old and her parents are being called heroes by a Northern California community for jumping into a canal to save a 75-year-old woman who drove off the road.
It happened on Larkin Road near Paseo Avenue in the Sutter County community of Live Oak on Monday.
“I just about lost her, but I didn’t,” said Terry Carpenter, husband of the woman who was rescued. “We got more chances.”
Terry said his wife of 33 years, Robin Carpenter, is the love of his life and soulmate. He is grateful he has been granted more time to spend with her after she survived her car crashing off a two-lane road and overturning into a canal.
“She’s doing really well,” Terry said. “No broken bones, praise the Lord.”
It is what some call a miracle that could have had a much different outcome without a family of good Samaritans.
“Her lips were purple,” said Ashley Martin, who helped rescue the woman. “There wasn’t a breath at all. I was scared.”
Martin and her husband, Cyle Johnson, are being hailed heroes by the Live Oak community for jumping into the canal, cutting Robin out of her seat belt and pulling her head above water until first responders arrived.
“She was literally submerged underwater,” Martin said. “She had a back brace on. Apparently, she just had back surgery. So, I grabbed her brace from down below and I flipped her upward just in a quick motion to get her out of that water.”
The couple said the real hero was their six-year-old daughter, Cayleigh Johnson.
“It was scary,” Cayleigh said. “So the car was going like this, and it just went boom, right into the ditch.”
Cayleigh was playing outside and screamed for her parents who were inside the house near the canal.
I spoke with Robin from her hospital bed over the phone who told us she is in a lot of pain but grateful.
“The thing I can remember is I started falling asleep and then I was going over the bump and I went into the ditch and that’s all I remember,” Robin said.
It was a split-second decision for a family who firefighters said helped save a stranger’s life.
“It’s pretty unique that someone would jump in and help somebody that they don’t even know,” said Battalion Chief for Sutter County Fire Richard Epperson.
Robin is hopeful that she will be released from the hospital on Wednesday in time to be home for Thanksgiving.
“She gets Thanksgiving and Christmas now with her family and grandkids,” Martin said.
Terry and Robin are looking forward to eventually meeting the family who helped save Robin’s life. The family expressed the same feelings about meeting the woman they helped when she is out of the hospital.
“I can’t wait for my baby to get home,” Terry said.
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