George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley tore into the Democratic Party on Fox News Monday over “misinformation” legislation targeting doctors.
“This law is chilling in what it says about free speech in California. These doctors are being told that if they are viewed as spreading misinformation, it will be considered unprofessional conduct, threatening their very licenses. But as you noted, John, many of the issues they cite, like mask and vaccine efficacy are all being cited as areas where they want to stop misinformation,” Turley said about the legislation. (RELATED: Newsom Signs Bill Making California ‘Sanctuary State’ For Child Sex Changes)
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed the legislation, AB2098, into law Friday that will punish doctors for spreading what is deemed to be health “,misinformation.” The bill’s findings claimed that doctors were among the most dangerous sources of alleged misinformation about COVID-19 and cited a resolution passed by the California State Assembly in Sept. 2021 that declared misinformation “a public health crisis” and urged the state to fight it.
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“Those are all areas where people were banned from social media, making statements that are now considered to be matters in good faith, issues that are worth debating. Back then when people questioned whether masks were effective, they were barred,” Turley continued. “And under this law, presumably, you could have used this law to threaten their licenses. But what was really essential about those dissenters is they forced a discussion and some proved to be right.”
Turley argued that while the Democrats once believed in free speech, they had instead turned to silencing dissenting viewpoints.
“I don’t know why Democrats have become the party of censorship and speech control. As you know, I come from a very liberal Democratic family in Chicago. I don’t recognize the party anymore. It used to be that this was a defining part of the Democratic Party,” Turley added. “Now law after law is about controlling the speech of others, censoring the speech of others. But this is very dangerous because what you are doing is threatening the very people we need to hear from if they have doubts about what is being put forward in policy.”
Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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