Blog and News

There have been two noteworthy developments related to healthcare litigation over the past few days.

First, the United States Supreme Court announced it has allotted an extra 30 minutes to hear oral arguments related to the ObamaCare litigation. The extra time will be provided to hear arguments over the Anti-Injunction Act - a federal statute that generally provides courts cannot hear cases involving the impact of tax laws until those laws have actually affected someone. With this development, the court will now hear 6 hours of oral argument over three days in late March. Read more here. 

Secondly, a federal court ruled against the State of Washington and struck down a mandate that would have forced pharmacies to dispense certain drugs even if doing so would violate the pharmacist's religious beliefs. The court ruled that this mandate conflicts with the pharmacists' First Amendment rights. It is important to understand that this decision protects not only the rights of conscience of providers but also the economic liberties of all persons involved in the medical profession. The specifics of this issue are not nearly as important as the broader issue at stake - that government should not have the power to dictate what services and goods each member of the medical professional must provide and the manner in which those services must be provided. It is absolutely imperative that each doctor, nurse and pharmacist retain the ability to freely choose how they will serve their patients and that physicians remain autonomous and free from government coercion. If government can override these basic decisions involving economic liberty, regardless of whether they are conscience based or not, we run the risk of losing patient trust. Read more about this particular case here.