From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Andy Schlafly, JD – https://www.americaoutloud.news/doctors-and-patients-or-bureaucrats-whos-in-charge-of-our-medical-care-2/
Political persecution through the legal system has become the new American justice. But it can work both ways – if we have the courage.
President Calvin Coolidge, a strong proponent of limited government, believed that “in order for the Constitution and self-government to survive, the people had to be vigilant in its preservation.” Covid-19 started a government and media censorship juggernaut. It is imperative that we all join to stop it in its tracks. The case currently being argued in front of the Supreme Court, Murthy v Missouri arose from – you guessed it – Covid. Missouri and other states assert that the government’s attempts to suppress so-called Covid misinformation went beyond mere public health information to suppression of speech via social media. At oral arguments, Justice Jackson seemed to feel that suppressing speech is the government’s job. To quote: “My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways.” The First Amendment to the Constitution says the government cannot abridge freedom of speech. As Justice Brandeis wrote in the 1927 free speech case, Whitney v California, free speech is at the heart of a democratic society and the answer to alleged falsehoods is “more speech, not enforced silence.”
Medical freedom for doctors and patients is becoming a distant memory. Physicians are afraid to go into pain management for fear of being labelled a pill pusher. Patients with chronic pain are resorting to getting heroin on the streets rather than be put in a government database. Physicians are bullied by medical boards with the specter of losing their licenses for having valid alternative views regarding medical treatment plans.
Lawyers—who we all know can strike fear into our hearts—can be a big part of preserving our liberty. The legal fights to reign in government overreach are about more than Covid. Lawyers are here to help protect the rights of the individual citizens. They are our last defense against government oppression and corporate corruption. Lawsuits can amplify a few lone voices and let those in power get the message: Our bodies and minds belong to us, not to the government.
I love quotes. Let me give you a few of my favorites on this topic:
“Heresy is another word for freedom of thought.” Graham Greene
“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” Albert Einstein
“All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.” Adlai Stevenson
“The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.” Carl Sagan
“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” Thomas Jefferson
Attorney Andy Schlafly a wonderful friend of the show and general counsel to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is here today to discuss freedom of speech and a recent case headed to the Supreme Court.
Link to amicus brief PDF: https://aapsonline.org/judicial/aaps-amicus-murthy-v-missouri-2-7-2024.pdf
Bio
Andy Schlafly is general counsel to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. He received a B.S.E. in electrical engineering and certificate in engineering physics from Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton, Mr. Schlafly briefly worked as a device physicist for Intel, then became a microelectronics engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He then attended Harvard Law School along with Barack Obama. For two years Mr. Schlafly was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Mr. Schlafly served as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Law School and worked for a large law firm before beginning private practice. Mr. Schlafly created the wiki-based Conservapedia in November 2006 to counter the apparent liberal bias in Wikipedia.
