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First Amendment 
Wed Apr 27, 2011 at 06:36:57 AM MST
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The High Court heard a case yesterday which is being argued on First Amendment grounds. The case arises from the practice of so-called "Data Mining" companies collecting the prescription history of doctors and then aggregating that information and selling it to pharmaceutical companies, who then use it to target market of drugs to specific doctors.
Now, the patients who receive these prescriptions are not known, just that that prescription was written and filled. The State of Vermont passed a law (as well as New Hampshire and a couple of other states) that prohibited this practice. They were taken to court by the data mining companies with the support of the pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Vermont created a law that requires that doctors consent to having this kind of information sold by pharmacies and data mining companies. The State admitted that part of the move to do so was an attempt to control costs. When doctors receive a barrage of marketing about name brand drugs, they are more likely to prescribe them, even if there is a generic that is just as effective. The desire to see more low cost prescriptions is the states interest in this and where they are likely to be in trouble with the High Court
Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg asked:
And if that's the purpose, why doesn't that run up against what this court has said - that you can't lower the decibel level of one speaker so that another speaker, in this case the generics, can be heard better?"
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Thu Dec 09, 2010 at 07:35:01 AM MST
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It is a hard thing to have a pluralistic society. It requires a certain level of tolerance for those who don't seem to be able to restrain themselves to the idea of polite society. Since we all, from time to time, break those constraints it is understood that the price of our forgiveness for doing so is being willing to forgive those who do the same. The problem with this construction is that there are those that will abuse the privilege, and frankly right under the First Amendment to make tiered and tasteless point.
This is what the assholes at Westboro Baptist Church are going to do at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards. The splinter sect of publicity hogs led by Fred Phelps is famous (I think that should be infamous, don't you?) for going to funerals of service members and standing there with their "God Hates Fags" signs. They even had the unmitigated gall to go to Mathew Shepard's funeral and protest there (Shepard for those who don't remember was beaten and then left to hang on a fence by two men who didn't like gays).
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Mon Sep 20, 2010 at 06:12:23 AM MST
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There is a meme out there in the radical Republican Party about Shariah (Islamic law based on the Qur'an and other works) being imposed here in the United States. It has so much acceptance that a supposed 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, could call for a Federal law banning it, at the Value Voters summit in Washington and get a standing ovation. To say that this kind of crazy gets right up my nose is an understatement on the level of saying the razing of Carthage was a minor property dispute.
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Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 06:18:21 AM MST
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Yesterday was a bad day for the First Amendment. The Roberts Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the material support law was, under the strict scrutiny test, constitutional. At issue was whether human rights groups can provide educational services to groups designated as terrorist without being in legal danger themselves. The High Court found that there was sufficient State interest in this area to limit free speech protections and limit them severely.
The Center For Constitutional Rights (CCR) were part of the legal team that brought the suit. They argued that the definitions of "material support" were overly broad and vague. Some of the words at issue were "expert advice", "training", "service" and personnel". These words can cover a lot of situations that have nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with bringing terrorist groups into the political process and ending their terrorist activities.
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Fri Apr 16, 2010 at 06:33:28 AM MST
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There a few places in my life where I am a minority. Being left handed, being blue-eyed and being an atheist. Only the last one is ever a problem, and while it is not the same as being gay or an easily identified ethnic minority, there is a level of discrimination that is often invisible to those not part of this minority.
The base state assumption in this country is that you have a religion. For the most part people don't pry but if you mention that you have no faith, that you are confident the universe is a natural phenomenon then you very often become instantly the "other".
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