11th Circuit: Constitutional To Bar Doctors From Asking Patients About Firearm Ownership
On July 25 the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit “eliminated the injunction” against the enforcement of Florida’s “gun gag” law, which restricts doctors from asking patients if they own a firearm unless asking is necessary to a patient’s treatment.
According to Law360.com, the 11th Circuit ruled that barring doctors from asking about firearms “doesn’t violate the First Amendment.”
Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) signed the NRA-backed “gun gag” legislation in 2011. Suit was brought against the State of Florida over the law by “the Florida chapters of the American Academies of Pediatrics and American College of Physicians along with a number of other groups and the anti-gun community.”
According to the NRA-ILA, the 11th Circuit explained their ruling thus:
In keeping with… traditional codes of conduct—which almost always mandate respect for patient privacy—the [“gun gag” law] simply acknowledges that the practice of good medicine does not require interrogation about irrelevant, private matters.
The court said the law “simply codifies that good medical care does not require injury or record-keeping regarding firearms when unnecessary to a patient’s care.”