A federal judge today ordered that the government must restore all patient safety research authored by private individuals and removed by the Trump administration from a federal website for including words like “LGBTQ” and “trans(gender).”
The new court ruling comes out of a case brought by two Harvard Medical School doctors after their articles were removed from Patient Safety Network (PSNet), a government-run website for doctors and medical researchers to share information about medical errors, misdiagnoses, and patient outcomes. The Trump administration removed the papers as part of a broad takedown of information that the government contends promotes “gender ideology,” including any articles containing certain prohibited terms, including “LGBTQ” and “trans(gender).”
“We are very gratified and encouraged by this affirmation of the First Amendment, academic freedom, and the illegality of the actions by the Trump administration in attempting to censor and take down our peer-reviewed patient safety articles,” said Dr. Gordon Schiff. “We hope it gives others in the educational, research, and medical communities the courage to not be intimidated in resisting these unacceptable actions by the Trump administration that, unopposed, will cost many thousands of lives. While re-posting of our articles to PSNet will reverse small, but important injustices, the larger attacks on public health and patient safety and health care access must also be resisted and reversed.”
“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to stand up for not just our rights, but those of other physicians, scientists, researchers, students, and all those who have been illegally silenced or engaged in self-censorship out of fear of this administration and the dismantling of our government and our democracy,” said Dr. Celeste Royce. “As an educator and a physician, I will continue to fight misinformation and falsehoods put out by the administration, and I will continue to advocate for the rights of my patients and my students. I hope our victory today will inspire others to continue to fight against all the injustices happening, and fight for the civil and human rights of the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and all the communities this administration is trying to silence and suppress.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to remove all statements that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.” The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) subsequently issued guidance directing all agencies to “[t]ake down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology.” PSNet’s removal of articles based on blacklisted terms followed.
According to the new court decision, the doctors “are likely to succeed in proving that the removal of their articles was a textbook example of viewpoint discrimination by the defendants in violation of the First Amendment.”
“Our clients were faced with an impossible choice: remove their patient safety research from PSNet entirely or change the words and messages to fit what this administration agrees with,” said Rachel Davidson, staff attorney with the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Republishing their articles is a victory for free speech and public health. The government can’t censor medical research solely because it disfavors certain viewpoints.”
The articles removed include “Endometriosis: A Common and Commonly Missed and Delayed Diagnosis,” co-authored by plaintiff Dr. Celeste Royce, which included a sentence about diagnosis in transgender and gender-nonconforming people, and “Multiple Missed Opportunities for Suicide Risk Assessment in Emergency and Primary Care Settings,” co-authored by plaintiff Dr. Gordon Schiff, which included a sentence about heightened risk in LGBTQ communities. The federal judge ordered that these articles be restored in full within seven days, as well as all other content authored by private parties that was removed from PSNet pursuant to the implementation of the executive order.
“This is a victory for our clients, for free speech, and for scientific integrity,” said Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “The First Amendment protects against the removal of our clients’ research solely because the government disagrees with its message. PSNet’s mandate is to provide information that protects patients – the government can’t pick and choose which information to share based on ideology.”
“As the Court saw clearly, what happened to our clients was 'a flagrant violation' of the First Amendment,” said Ben Menke, a third-year student in the Yale Law School Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic. “We're proud to represent our clients, who stood up for their constitutional rights in order to protect the safety and dignity of transgender patients across the country. This outcome shows that in the United States of America, we don't tolerate Orwellian speech edicts.”
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Massachusetts.
