CHD, Basketball Legend John Stockton and Censored Doctors Sue Washington Medical Commission

Children’s Health Defense, basketball hall-of-famer John Stockton and physicians targeted by the Washington Medical Commission…

Children's Health Defense

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Basketball legend John Stockton and Children’s Health Defense (CHD) are among the plaintiffs suing the Washington Medical Commission, alleging it violated doctors’ First Amendment right to criticize the “mainstream COVID narrative” and denied the public the right to hear such criticism.

Stockton v. Ferguson, filed March 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, seeks “to protect the right of physicians to speak, and the right of the public to hear their message.”

Stockton, a basketball hall-of-famer and Olympic gold medalist, also co-hosts the “Voices for Medical Freedom Podcast.” According to the lawsuit, Stockton joined the lawsuit to advocate in favor of the public’s right to access “soapbox speech.”

“There’s this broader silencing effect where people aren’t even actually being directly censored,” Stockton told The Defender. “Their speech is just being chilled. So, they’re not expressing what they believe in, what they want to say for fear of these sorts of repercussions. I look at it as one of these things where you just can’t stay silent.”

Attorney Rick Jaffe, who was counsel in a lawsuit that successfully challenged California’s medical misinformation law, said Stockton’s placement as the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff symbolizes the importance of protecting the public’s right to listen.

“This is my fifth lawsuit against medical boards,” Jaffe said. “The other suits had a physician as the lead plaintiff.” While those lawsuits “talked about the right to receive information,” Jaffe said he “wanted to strongly and symbolically make the point that it is ultimately about the right of people to have access to dissenting professional voices.”

Kim Mack Rosenberg, CHD general counsel, said the commission’s censorship “hurts not only those doctors and others who have valuable information to share but also the public, who has a right to receive and evaluate a variety of viewpoints and opinions.”

Rosenberg told The Defender “Government censorship at this level violates not only protected free speech rights but reeks of a ‘nanny state,’ where the government dictates what it believes is best for its citizens.”

CHD, in addition to being a plaintiff, is financially supporting the lawsuit. Other plaintiffs include Dr. Richard Eggleston, Dr. Thomas T. Siler, Dr. Daniel Moynihan and approximately 60 yet-unnamed doctors facing disciplinary proceedings by the state’s medical commission.

The commission subjected Siler and Eggleston to disciplinary proceedings after they published articles critical of the mainstream COVID-19 narrative. Moynihan alleges the commission’s actions “chill his willingness” to speak publicly.

Washington Attorney General Robert “Bob” Ferguson and Kyle S. Karinen, executive director of the Washington Medical Commission, are named as defendants…