A federal judge Wednesday blocked a Florida gun law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearms.<\/p>\n
Judge Marcia G. Cooke said doctors had a First Amendment right to ask about firearms, and she rapped the state\u2019s lawyers for failing to provide more than anecdotal evidence to show the law was needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe State has attempted to inveigle this Court to cast this matter as a Second Amendment case,\u201d Cooke wrote. \u201cDespite the State\u2019s insistence that the right to \u201ckeep arms\u201d is the primary constitutional right at issue in this litigation, a plain reading of the statute reveals that this law in no way affects such rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the \u201cFirearm Owners\u2019 Privacy Act into law June 2nd vowed to appeal<\/p>\n
\u201cThe privacy of firearm owners\u2019 legislation was carefully crafted to respect the First Amendment. We plan to appeal the judge\u2019s block, and we\u2019re confident we\u2019ll win the appeal,\u201d Scott\u2019s office said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
In an interesting twist, the judge arrived at her ruling, in part, based on a free-speech case brought by Scott\u2019s former chain of urgent-care clinics, Solantic, which sued the City of Neptune Beach over a sign ordinance.<\/p>\n