Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:30:41.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Matter of Context: Casey and the Constitutionality of Compelled Physician Speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” Given the myriad ways in which freedom of speech can be implicated, the United States Supreme Court has not adopted a single standard for reviewing First Amendment speech claims. With respect to compelled speech, the Court has instructed that “context” is dispositive. When the government attempts to “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” the Court applies strict scrutiny. When, however, “the State has a significant role to play in regulating” a particular context, government-compelled disclosures may be subject to a lower standard of review: “When a state regulation implicates First Amendment rights, the court must balance those interests against the State’s legitimate interest in regulating the activity in question.”

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

U.S. Const. Amend I.Google Scholar
See Riley v. Nat'l Fed. of the Blind of North Carolina, Inc., 487 U.S. 781, 796 (1988) (“Our lodestars in deciding what level of scrutiny to apply to a compelled statement must be the nature of the speech taken as a whole and the effect of the compelled statement thereon.”).Google Scholar
West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943).Google Scholar
Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 157 (2007).Google Scholar
Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada, 501 U.S. 1030, 1076 (1991).Google Scholar
See, e.g., N.C. Gen Stat. §§ 90–21.85(a)(2), (4) (2011)Google Scholar
Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 63 §§ 1–738.3d(B)(2), (4) (West Supp. 2012); Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 171.012(a)(4)(C) (West Supp. II 2012).Google Scholar
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 884 (1992).Google Scholar
See Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of Sup. Ct. of Ohio, 471 U.S. 626, 651 (1985) (recognizing that disclosure requirements aimed at misleading commercial speech need only be “reasonably related to the State's interest in preventing deception of consumers”).Google Scholar
Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589 (1977).Google Scholar
See Pickup v. Brown, 740 F.3d 1208, 1231 (9th Cir. 2013) (“Because SB 1172 regulates only treatment, while leaving mental health providers free to discuss and recommend, or recommend against, SOCE, we conclude that any effect it may have on free speech is merely incidental. Therefore, we hold that SB 1172 is subject to only rational basis review… See Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.”).Google Scholar
Whalen, 429 U.S. at 603.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884. See also Tex. Med. Providers Performing Abortion Servs. v. Lakey, 667 F.3d 570, 575 (5th Cir. 2012)Google Scholar
Planned Parenthood Minn., N.D., S.D. v. Rounds, 530 F.3d 724, 733–34 (8th Cir. 2008)Google Scholar
and Pickup, 740 F.3d at 1231.Google Scholar
Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, 714 (1977).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884 (citing Wooley, 430 U.S. 705 (1977).Google Scholar
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc., 472 U.S. 749, 758 (1985).Google Scholar
Riley, 487 U.S. at 796;.Google Scholar
Greater Baltimore Ctr. for Pregnancy Concerns, Inc. v. Mayor of Baltimore, 721 F.3d 264, 286 (4th Cir. 2013) (quoting Riley and confirming that “context matters”).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, F.3d: 760 F.3d 1195, 1206 (11th Cir. 2014) (noting that the district court struck down on First Amendment grounds a statute, which limited the ability of medical practitioners to record information or inquire about firearm-ownership if not necessary to providing good medical care, “regardless of whether strict scrutiny or some lesser standard applied”).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Stuart v. Loomis, 992 F. Supp.2d 585, 596 (M.D.N.C. 2014) (stating that Wooley stands for the proposition that “the state cannot compel a person to speak the state's ideological message”)Google Scholar
Id., 992 F. Supp.2d 585, 596 (M.D.N.C. 2014), at 592 (“The First Amendment generally prohibits the government from requiring people to speak its messages.”).Google Scholar
See Wooley, , 430 U.S. at 713: “We are thus faced with the question of whether the State may constitutionally require an individual to participate in the dissemination of an ideological message by displaying it on his private property in a manner and for the express purpose that it be observed and read by the public.”Google Scholar
Id., at 715 (emphasis added).Google Scholar
Id., at 717 n.15.Google Scholar
Id., at 715 n.11.Google Scholar
471 U.S. at 650.Google Scholar
Riley, 487 U.S. at 796.Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651.Google Scholar
Id. at 650, 651. Reasonableness is a low level of review, along the lines of rational basis. The Court precludes the government's mandating that professionals (attorneys in Zauderer and physicians in Casey) disclose false, misleading, or irrelevant information because such information would not be reasonable, i.e., rationally related to any governmental interest.Google Scholar
Id., at 651.Google Scholar
Id. (quoting Barnette, 319 U.S. at 642).Google Scholar
Wooley, 430 U.S. at 715 n.11.Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651.Google Scholar
Id. (quoting Barnette, 319 U.S. at 642).Google Scholar
The plaintiffs in Zauderer claimed that disclosure requirements should be subject to “least restrictive means” and “underinclusive” arguments. Id. at 651 n.14Google Scholar
The Court rejected these heightened scrutiny requirements: “Because the First Amendment interests implicated by disclosure requirements are substantially weaker than those at stake when speech is actually suppressed, we do not think it appropriate to strike down such requirements merely because other possible means by which the State might achieve its purposes can be hypothesized…. As a general matter, governments are entitled to attack problems piecemeal, save where their policies implicate rights so fundamental that strict scrutiny must be applied.” Id.Google Scholar
Compare Id. (“We do not suggest that disclosure requirements do not implicate the advertiser's First Amendment rights at all.”) with Casey, 505 U.S. at 884 (“To be sure, the physician's First Amendment rights not to speak are implicated”).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.Google Scholar
Wooley, 430 U.S. at 714 (quoting Barnette, 319 U.S. at 637), at 714 (quoting Barnette, 319 U.S. at 637).Google Scholar
Frisby v. Schultz, 487 U.S. 474, 479 (1988).Google Scholar
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 472 U.S. at 758–59 (quoting First Nat'l Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765, 776 (1978))Google Scholar
See also Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 101–102 (1940)Google Scholar
United States v. Alvarez, 132 S. Ct. 2537, 2544 (2012) (noting that the First Amendment recognizes that “false statements are inevitable if there is to be an open and vigorous expression of views in public and private conversation, expression the First Amendment seeks to guarantee” but confirming that limits on false expression are permissible where “[t]he vast realm of free speech and thought always protected in our tradition can still thrive, and even be furthered” despite such limitations).Google Scholar
Perry Ed. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 45 (1983).Google Scholar
R.A.V. v. St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 386 (1992)Google Scholar
All compelled disclosures are content-based. The government mandates that particular individuals provide specific information related to a particular subject area. But Casey and Zauderer demonstrate that, if the government has a special interest in a particular context, it may require reasonable content-based disclosures related to that interest.Google Scholar
Perry Ed. Ass'n, 460 U.S. at 46.Google Scholar
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 340 (1974).Google Scholar
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964)Google Scholar
See also Snyder v. Phelps, 131 S.Ct. 1207, 1219 (2011) (upholding the First Amendment right of picketers at military funerals to hold signs that were offensive to many because the activity constituted speech in “a public place on a matter of public concern”).Google Scholar
Gertz, 418 U.S. at 347.Google Scholar
Id, at 349.Google Scholar
Snyder, 131 S. Ct. 1215. See also Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 472 U.S. at 760 (quoting Harley-Davidson Motorsports, Inc. v. Markley, 568 P.2d 1359, 1363 (Or. 1977)) (“Where the concerns with public debate are absent, there is no threat of liability causing a reaction of self-censorship by the press. The facts of the present case are wholly without the First Amendment concerns with which the Supreme Court of the United States has been struggling.”’).Google Scholar
Id, at 760 (citing Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 147 (1983)). A similar analysis governs the free speech rights of government employees. See Connick, 461 U.S. at 146 (“When employee expression cannot be fairly considered as relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community, government officials should enjoy wide latitude in managing their offices, without intrusive oversight by the judiciary in the name of the First Amendment.”).Google Scholar
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 472 U.S. at 761.Google Scholar
New York Times Co., 376 U.S. at 270.Google Scholar
See Snyder, 131 S. Ct. at 1215 (citations omitted): “Accordingly, ‘speech on public issues occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection.’… [W]here matters of purely private significance are at issue, First Amendment protections are often less rigorous…because restricting speech on purely private matters does not implicate the same constitutional concerns as limiting speech on matters of public interest.”.Google Scholar
Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 472 U.S. at 758.Google Scholar
Some commentators have argued that Zauderer applies only in the commercial speech context where the state seeks to prevent deception. See, e.g., T. J. Straub, “Fair Warning?: The First Amendment, Compelled Commercial Disclosures and Cigarette Warning Labels,” Fordham Urban Law Journal 40 (2013): 12011264;.Google Scholar
Stern, N. Stern, M. J., “Advancing an Adaptive Standard of Strict Scrutiny for Content Based Commercial Speech Regulation,” University of Richmond Law Review 47 (2013): At 117. Given space limitations, this Article does not engage these commentators directly but seeks to explain why the reasoning in Zauderer applies more broadly to other contexts in which “the interests at stake…are not of the same order as those discussed in Wooley, Tornillo, and Barnette.” 471 U.S. at 651.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 881.Google Scholar
Id, at 882–83.Google Scholar
Id, at 877.Google Scholar
Id, at 878.Google Scholar
Id, at 882.Google Scholar
The Court frequently has defined rational basis scrutiny in terms of reasonableness. See, e.g., Armour v. City of Indianapolis, 132 S. Ct. 2073, 2080 (2012) (noting that “rational basis review requires deference to reasonable underlying legislative judgments”);Google Scholar
Ysursa v. Pocatello Educ. Ass'n, 555 U.S. 353, 360 (2009) (upholding Idaho's ban on political payroll deductions under rational basis because Idaho's legislation “is plainly reasonable”)Google Scholar
Fed. Commc'n Comm'n v. Beach Commc'n, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313 (1993) (stating that rational basis is satisfied if “there is any reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational basis for the classification”).Google Scholar
See Lakey, 667 F.3d at 577 (holding that speech-and-display provisions are constitutional “[i]f the disclosures are truthful and non-misleading, and if they would not violate the woman's privacy right” under Casey); Rounds, 530 F.3d at 734–35 (8th Cir. 2008) (interpreting Casey and Gonzales to hold that the State “can use its regulatory authority to require a physician to provide truthful, non-misleading information relevant to a patient's decision to have an abortion”).Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651.Google Scholar
At first glance, this last factor – whether the compelled statements otherwise limit speech – may not seem to do much work in terms of the Court's analysis. Compelled speech does not in and of itself involve speech restrictions, so the factor would always be met in cases involving only compelled speech. The Court emphasizes this point, however, to emphasize that speech restrictions may trigger heightened scrutiny, thereby encouraging government actors not to overreach in their legislative efforts to regulate professionals, such as doctors. See also Wollschlaeger, 760 F.3d at 1219 and Locke v. Shore, 634 F.3d 1185, 1191 (11th Cir. 2011) (upholding Florida's restriction on physicians' inquiring about firearm ownership because the “the inquiry provision places no burdens whatsoever on physicians' ability to speak outside the physician-patient relationship”)Google Scholar
Locke, 634 F.3d at 1191 (“There is a difference, for First Amendment purposes, between regulating professionals' speech to the public at large versus their direct, personalized speech with clients.”).Google Scholar
See Wollschlaeger, 760 F.3d at 1221 (noting that “[a]lthough we accept that firearm safety may be a matter of public concern,” there was no First Amendment violation “in the context of a regulation of professional conduct that provides that the privacy of a physician's examination room is not an appropriate forum for unrestricted debate on such matters”).Google Scholar
Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 157 (2007).Google Scholar
See also Barsky v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of N.Y., 347 U.S. 442, 449 (1954) (holding that States may regulate “all professions concerned with health”)Google Scholar
Wollschlaeger, 760 F.3d at 1217 (“To define the standards of good medical practice and provide for administrative enforcement of those standards is well within the State's long-established authority to regulate the profession.”).Google Scholar
Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 731 (1997)Google Scholar
Barsky, 347 U.S. at 451 (noting that States have “legitimate concern for maintaining high standards of professional conduct” in the practice of medicine).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S.> at 882–83.+at+882–83.>Google Scholar
Id, at 882.Google Scholar
Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 184 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting).Google Scholar
See Moore-King v. County of Chesterfield, Va., 708 F.3d 560, 569 (4th Cir. 2013) (“the government can…regulate those who provide services to their clients for compensation without running afoul of the First Amendment”).Google Scholar
Post, R. C., “Informed Consent to Abortion: A First Amendment Analysis of Compelled Physician Speech,” University of Illinois Law Review (2007): 939990, at 949.Google Scholar
Wollschlaeger, 760 F.3d at 1218.Google Scholar
323 U.S. 516, 545 (1945) (Jackson, J., concurring). See also Halberstam, D., “Commercial Speech, Professional Speech, and the Constitutional Status of Social Institutions,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 147 (1999): 771874, at 834–844 (providing an overview of the development of the professional speech doctrine).Google Scholar
Id. Zauderer applies the same analysis to Ohio's compelled disclosures regarding contingent-fee arrangements. The Court upheld the disclosures in Zauderer because there are “material differences between disclosure requirements and outright prohibitions on speech” and Ohio did “not attempt[] to prevent attorneys from conveying information to the public.” 471 U.S. at 650.Google Scholar
472 U.S. 181, 228 (1985) (White, J., concurring). See also Id. at 232 (White, J., concurring) (“Where the personal nexus between professional and client does not exist, and a speaker does not purport to be exercising judgment on behalf of any particular individual with whose circumstances he is directly acquainted, government regulation ceases to function as legitimate regulation of professional practice with only incidental impact on speech; it becomes regulation of speaking or publishing as such, subject to the First Amendment[]”).Google Scholar
Moore-King, 708 F.3d at 569.Google Scholar
Accountant's Soc'y of Va. v. Bowman, 860 F.2d 602, 604 (4th Cir. 1988) (citation omitted)Google Scholar
Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assoc., 436 U.S. 447, 459, 467–68 (1978)Google Scholar
Lawline v. American Bar Ass'n, 956 F.2d 1378, 1386 (7th Cir. 1992) (“Any abridgment of the right to free speech is merely the incidental effect of observing an otherwise legitimate regulation.”).Google Scholar
Wollschlaeger, 760 F.3d at 1215 (“Insofar as Plaintiffs claim a generalized interest in being able to speak freely to their patients, such conversation (if not relevant to medical care) is outside the boundaries of the physician-patient relationship.”).Google Scholar
Lthough the district court in Stuart characterizes Bowman as addressing only professional licensing, Stuart, 992 F. Supp.2d at 594 n.15, it directly involves the regulation of professional speech. See Bowman, 860 F.2d at 605 (“The statute in question restricts only accountants' communications with and on behalf of their clients, as a means of regulating the professional activities of non-CPAs.”).Google Scholar
Id. (quoting Lowe, 472 U.S. at 232 (White, J., concurring)).Google Scholar
Bowman, 860 F.2d at 605.Google Scholar
Locke, 634 F.3d at 1191.Google Scholar
Pickup, 740 F.3d at 1228. See also Post, R. C., Democracy, Expertise, and Academic Freedom (New Haven: Yale University Press): At 24. (“Within public discourse, the First Amendment requires law to respect the autonomy of speakers rather than to protect the targets of speech; outside public discourse, the First Amendment permits the state to control the autonomy of speakers in order to protect the dignity of the targets of speech.”).Google Scholar
Bowman, 860 F.2d at 604 (citation omitted).Google Scholar
Id, at 605.Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651Google Scholar
See also Casey, 505 U.S. at 885.Google Scholar
Zauderer refers to “purely factual and uncontroversial information.” 471 U.S. at 651. In the context of professional speech, “uncontroversial” cannot prohibit disclosures related to controversial topics – otherwise Casey would have been decided differently.Google Scholar
The Supreme Court has not given a precise definition of what constitutes an “undue burden” other than saying that it is a regulation that imposes a “substantial obstacle.” Casey, 505 U.S. 878. But even this definition is of limited value given that the Court has not necessarily applied the test consistently, upholding a 24-hour waiting period but striking down a spousal consent requirement.Google Scholar
See United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675, 2717 (2013) (noting that “in rational basis cases…‘the courts have been very reluctant, as they should be in our federal system and with our respect for the separation of powers, to closely scrutinize legislative choices as to whether, how, and to what extent those interests should be presumed.”’).Google Scholar
See Central Hudson Gas & Elec. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 447 U.S. 557 (1980).Google Scholar
Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 163–64.Google Scholar
Planned Parenthood Minn., North Dakota, South Dakota v. Rounds, 686 F.3d 889, 906 (8th Cir. 2012).Google Scholar
Id, at 905.Google Scholar
Although the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has adopted a similar interpretation, some commentators disagree. See, e.g., Sawicki, N. M., “Compelling Images: The Constitutionality of Emotionally Persuasive Health Campaigns,” Maryland Law Review 73 (2014): 458522Google Scholar
and Smith, C. D., “Mandatory Ultrasound Statutes and the First Amendment, Shifting the Constitutional Perspective,” Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender 20 (2014): 844855. Some commentators contend that speech-and-display laws require the disclosure of controversial and possibly irrelevant information and that these laws are, therefore, unconstitutional. This Article takes the opposite position, but space constraints preclude a detailed analysis of these commentators' arguments.Google Scholar
Lakey, 667 F.3d at 577–78.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 882.Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 650.Google Scholar
See also Post, supra note 87, at 24 (“Within public discourse, the First Amendment requires law to respect the autonomy of speakers rather than to protect the targets of speech; outside public discourse, the First Amendment permits the state to control the autonomy of speakers in order to protect the dignity of the targets of speech.”).Google Scholar
Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 159.Google Scholar
See Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 60 (2006) (“Law schools remain free…to express whatever views they may have on the military's congressionally mandated employment policy”).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 160.Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651.Google Scholar
Barnette, 319 U.S. at 642.Google Scholar
See King v. Governor of the State of New Jersey, 767 F.3d 216, 236 (3d Cir. 2014) (“In the context of commercial speech, the Supreme Court has treated compelled disclosures of truthful factual information differently than prohibitions of speech, subjecting the former to rational basis review and the latter to intermediate scrutiny.”).Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 651.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.Google Scholar
Id. See Stuart, 992 F. Supp.2d at 608 (“Despite its brevity, the First Amendment analysis is clearly a traditional one, couched by its reference to Wooley in terms of compelled speech and by its reference to the state's ability to regulate the practice of medicine in terms of professional speech.”).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884 (citing Whalen, 429 U.S. at 603).Google Scholar
Whalen, 429 U.S. at 591, 593.Google Scholar
Id. at 597–98.Google Scholar
Id. at 600.Google Scholar
Id. at 603 (noting that “the statute did not deprive the public of access to the drugs”).Google Scholar
Id. (“Within dosage limits which appellees do not challenge, the decision to prescribe, or to use, is left entirely to the physician and the patient.”).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 877.Google Scholar
Whalen, 429 U.S. at 603.Google Scholar
Id, at 604.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884 (“On its own, the doctor-patient relation here is entitled to the same solicitude it receives in other contexts. Thus, a requirement that a doctor give a woman certain information as part of obtaining her consent to an abortion is, for constitutional purposes, no different from a requirement that a doctor give certain specific information about any medical procedure.”).Google Scholar
Whalen, 429 U.S. at 604 n.33. See Casey, 505 U.S. at 884 (“[the] constitutional status [of] the doctor-patient relation…in the [provision of abortion services] is derivative of the woman's position.”).Google Scholar
Id. at 884 (holding that physicians do not garner additional protection because the “doctor-patient relation does not underlie or override the two more general rights under which the abortion right is justified: The right to make family decisions and the right to physical autonomy.”).Google Scholar
Whalen, 429 U.S. at 604 n.33.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884–85.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Benson, J.et al, “Early Abortion Services in the United States: A Provider Survey, Contraception, available at <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010782402005127#> (last visited February 11, 2015) (finding that 83% of the abortion-service sites studied always performed an ultrasound before an early surgical abortion and 92% always performed one before a medical abortion)+(last+visited+February+11,+2015)+(finding+that+83%+of+the+abortion-service+sites+studied+always+performed+an+ultrasound+before+an+early+surgical+abortion+and+92%+always+performed+one+before+a+medical+abortion)>Google Scholar
It's not just forced ultrasound: “Abortion Rights Under Assault,” Salon.com, October 21, 2012, available at <http://www.salon.com/2012/10/21/its_not_just_forced_ultrasound_abortion_rights_under_assault/> (last visited February 11, 2015) (“Ultrasounds are a routine procedure at Planned Parenthood and many other clinics, a tool doctors use to gauge gestational age – which can affect which procedure to use – or to detect complications.”). (last visited February 11, 2015) (“Ultrasounds are a routine procedure at Planned Parenthood and many other clinics, a tool doctors use to gauge gestational age – which can affect which procedure to use – or to detect complications.”).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=It's+not+just+forced+ultrasound:+“Abortion+Rights+Under+Assault,”+Salon.com,+October+21,+2012,+available+at++(last+visited+February+11,+2015)+(“Ultrasounds+are+a+routine+procedure+at+Planned+Parenthood+and+many+other+clinics,+a+tool+doctors+use+to+gauge+gestational+age+–+which+can+affect+which+procedure+to+use+–+or+to+detect+complications.”).>Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 883.Google Scholar
Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 650.Google Scholar
Stuart, 992 F. Supp.2d at 608.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.Google Scholar
410 U.S. 113 ( (1973).Google Scholar
462 U.S. 416 ( (1983).Google Scholar
476 U.S. 747 ( (1986).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 882 (citation omitted).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Stuart, 992 F. Supp.2d at 601 (“[T]he Act requires providers to actually deliver the information to every single patient who seeks an abortion, even those who object to receiving it or who would be harmed by it.”).Google Scholar
See Akron, 462 U.S. at 445 (“For example, even if a physician believes that some of the risks outlined in subsection (5) are nonexistent for a particular patient, he remains obligated to described them to her.”); Thornburgh, 476 U.S. at 762 (“The mandated description of fetal characteristics at 2-week intervals, no matter how objective, is plainly overinclusive. This is not medical information that is always relevant to the woman's decision.”).Google Scholar
Thornburgh, 476 U.S. at 762.Google Scholar
Stuart, 992 F. Supp.2d at 601.Google Scholar
Thornburgh, 476 U.S. at 763.Google Scholar
Stuart, 992 F. Supp.2d at 609. Under North Carolina's speech-and-display legislation, a physician must show the ultrasound image to the woman and to describe the image. Contrary to the district court's suggestion, the statute does not require that “a physician attempt to persuade a woman not to have abortion.” Physicians may counsel a woman to have an abortion or not depending on the physician's assessment of what is in the patient's best medical interests.Google Scholar
Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 159 (citations omitted).Google Scholar
See Lawline v. American Bar Ass'n, 956 F.2d 1378, 1386 (7th Cir. 1992) (“When employing the appropriate rational basis test, this Court does not require that the state choose the wisest policy, only that it choose a constitutional one.”).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 882.Google Scholar
Id, at 884 (emphasis added).Google Scholar
Lakey, 667 F.3d at 575.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.Google Scholar
Lakey, 667 F.3d at 578.Google Scholar
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Surgical Health Servs. v. Abbot, 2014 WL 1257965, at *7 (5th Cir. 2014) (citing F.C.C. v. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313, 315 (1993)).Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 882 (citation omitted).Google Scholar
See Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 167.Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.Google Scholar
Harper Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539, 559 (1985).Google Scholar
Lambert v. Yellowley, >272 U.S. 581, 596 (1926).272+U.S.+581,+596+(1926).>Google Scholar
Casey, 505 U.S. at 884.Google Scholar
Id, at 883.Google Scholar