Supreme Court says no to case involving Eggleston

A case brought forth by a group that includes Clarkston’s Dr. Richard Eggleston, basketball legend John Stockton and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is back in the headlines this week after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the group.

Children’s Health Defense, a group founded by RFK, had its application for an injunction against the Washington Medical Commission denied by the San Francisco-based 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals. Then on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied the group’s emergency application for injunction on behalf of the court.

Children’s Health Defense is trying to protect doctors being investigated in Washington state, including Eggleston, for allegedly spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 virus.

The group was created years ago to help inform people about risks related to childhood vaccines, said Clarkston attorney Todd Richardson, who is assisting Eggleston in the case. Stockton knew Kennedy, and Eggleston knew Stockton, and that’s how the group of plaintiffs was formed.

Eggleston came under scrutiny from the Washington Medical Commission for writing opinion columns published in the Lewiston Tribune where, among other things, he shared allegedly inaccurate information about COVID-19, pandemic death counts, ivermectin as a treatment for the virus and vaccines. The former ophthalmologist maintained his medical license after he retired.

Richardson said this week’s denial was disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Attorneys for Children’s Health Defense claim the attempts to sanction physicians for their COVID-19 views would violate their free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

The group’s claim against the Washington Medical Commission remains in litigation before the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a panel of judges will have an opportunity to hear the full case, Richardson said in an email to the Lewiston Tribune on Thursday.

“The Freedom of Speech has been called the ‘indispensable right,’ ” Richardson said in the email. “It is truly foundational to all other rights and to the very existence of government for, by, and of the People. Without the fullest protections of this right, we are threatened at every level of the decision.”

In addition, Richardson said Americans must have the right to speak and hear opinions and voices that allow them to exercise “our God-given agency, or we become enslaved to whomever controls what we are allowed to say and think.”

According to the Clarkston attorney, Stockton and these doctors embody the courage required to protect and save the Constitution.

“Despite derision, prosecution, and early defeat in court, they have persevered, and I believe they will eventually prevail, and we will all be better off for their strength of character.”

Rick Jaffe, who represents the plaintiffs, said he hopes the Supreme Court will clearly state that the Constitution doesn’t permit the government to sanction the public viewpoint speech of physicians.

Kennedy, the intended nominee for the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services by President-elect Donald Trump, is listed as one of the attorneys on the application.

Sandaine can be reached at kerris@lmtribune.com.