The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Children’s Health Defense group’s attempt to halt investigations of doctors in Washington state over potential Covid-19 misinformation.
Justice Elena Kagan previously denied the bid in November, after which Kennedy’s group and doctors asked Justice Clarence Thomas to review their application for an injunction pending appeal. Thomas referred the matter to the full court, which denied the application on Monday in the high court’s routine order list announcing action on pending matters.
The full rejection is unsurprising, given that Kagan saw it fit to deny relief on her own without referring the matter to her colleagues or requesting the other side of the litigation to weigh in. None of the justices noted any disagreement with the denial on Monday.
The denial comes as Kennedy’s public health views have been scrutinized in connection with Trump naming him for health secretary as his second presidential term is set to begin next week. NBC News reported that Kennedy is among the picks who have faced bipartisan Senate skepticism and that he doesn’t have a confirmation hearing scheduled yet.
Two doctors, along with Kennedy’s group and others, sued Washington state’s attorney general and the head of the state’s medical commission after the panel accused the doctors of unprofessional conduct for spreading covid misinformation in newspaper columns and online. The applicants argued the commission violated their free speech rights under the First Amendment.
“The Court should speak clearly and decisively to state actors, professional organizations, other non-state actors, and the national media: Public speech does not lose its constitutional protection from government action simply because it is uttered by a healthcare professional, even if it is at odds with medical orthodoxy,” Kennedy and his colleagues wrote in their Supreme Court injunction application after lower federal courts rejected them.
The justices separately last year rejected Kennedy’s attempt to get off swing-state ballots and on New York’s ballot after he suspended his independent presidential campaign and announced his support for Trump. If Kennedy becomes Trump’s health secretary, the justices could be seeing more appeals featuring his name in an official capacity as head of the department.
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