MIAMI -- A federal appeals court cleared the way Thursday for Florida doctors to talk to their patients about gun safety, overturning a 2011 law that pitted medical providers against the state's powerful gun lobby.
In its 10-1 ruling, the full panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that doctors could not be threatened with losing their license for asking patients if they owned guns and for discussing gun safety because to do so would violate their free speech.
"Florida does not have carte blanche to restrict the speech of doctors and medical professionals on a certain subject without satisfying the demands of heightened scrutiny," the majority wrote in its decision.
In its lawsuit, the medical community argued that questions about gun storage were crucial to public health because of the relationship between firearms and both the suicide rate and gun-related deaths of children.
A number of doctors and medical organizations sued Florida in a case that came to be known as Docs v. Glocks, after the popular handgun.
"We are thrilled that the court has finally put to bed the nonsensical and dangerous idea that a doctor speaking with a patient about gun safety somehow threatens the right to own a gun," said Howard Simon, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which helped organize a coalition of medical associations and family rights groups that filed a friends of the court brief. "This was a dangerous free speech restriction, especially for the health and lives of children."
The Florida law was the first in the country to try to restrict the First Amendment rights of medical providers to discuss the safe storage of guns with patients, and the ruling will probably make it more difficult for other states to pass a similar measure.
The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, with the support of the state's Republican governor, Rick Scott, passed the restrictions in 2011, aimed primarily at pediatricians.
Under the law, doctors could lose their licenses or risk large fines for asking patients or their families about gun ownership and gun habits.
The Legislature grew concerned after it heard anecdotes about people who said they felt pressured to answer questions about gun ownership and harassment when they did not do so.
One mother said she felt it was an invasion of privacy.
The National Rifle Association viewed the medical community's gun-related questions as discriminatory and a form of harassment, a position that the state took in court when it argued that the queries violated the right to bear arms.
It became one in a series of gun-rights laws that Florida -- a state known for its "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law -- has passed over the past few years.
But the appeals court decided Thursday that the law did not violate the Second Amendment.
"The first problem is that there was no evidence whatsoever before the Florida Legislature that any doctors or medical professionals have taken away patients' firearms or otherwise infringed on patients' Second Amendment rights," the judges wrote.
A Section on 02/18/2017