AAPS sues the Biden Administration and Specialty Boards

Last month, the Biden Administration declared war on small businesses (think independent doctors) and all board-certified physicians.

AAPS responded with a legal blast, detailed in Wednesday's email. (Oct 23, 2024)

AAPS Educational Foundation Expands Lawsuit Against the Biden Administration and Specialty Boards

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Educational Foundation (“AAPS”) filed on Monday an expansion to its federal lawsuit against the Biden Administration and board-certifying organizations that threatened to, and sometimes have, revoked board certifications of physicians based on their outspokenness on matters of public policy.

Physicians who advocated using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 have, for example, been retaliated against by revocation of their board certifications. In addition, a board-certified witness was testifying against abortion at a congressional hearing when she was threatened with retaliation against her board certification, the Amended Complaint states.

The lawsuit has been joined by three physicians victimized by such retaliation.

“Using nearly identical terminology and timing, Defendants have acted in an apparently coordinated manner to attain their common objective of censorship based on viewpoint,” AAPS states in its Amended Complaint. Defendants are the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology (ABOG), the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and the Biden Administration.

In this precedent-setting lawsuit, AAPS seeks to establish that ABIM, ABOG, and ABFM have engaged in “state action” in threatening or revoking physicians’ board certifications, which are necessary to practice medicine in most hospitals. AAPS sets forth in its court filings multiple ways in which these board-certifying organizations should be deemed to be state actors, and thus prohibited by the First Amendment from discriminating based on viewpoint.

“This new form of censorship is more dangerous than prior infringements on freedom of speech,” AAPS’s attorney Andrew Schlafly observes. “The Biden Administration has also wrongly caused social media platforms to take down postings and videos.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on June 3 in this case that there is a constitutional right to hear which is fully protected by the First Amendment. “When physicians are silenced by threats to revoke their board certification, that infringes on the constitutional right to hear what they have to say,” Mr. Schlafly added.

AAPS Educational Foundation’s lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Galveston, No. 3:22-cv-240.

Link to Complaint: https://aapsonline.org/judicial/aaps-v-abim-amended-complaint-10-21-2024.pdf

Link to Press Release: https://aapsonline.org/aaps-expands-lawsuit-against-the-biden-administration-and-specialty-boards/

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) Sues to Block Expansion of the Federal Police State

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (“AAPS”) served a lawsuit on Oct 11, seeking to block the upcoming requirement that tens of millions of Americans provide their personal information to federal agencies beginning Jan 1, 2025. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) imposes this new reporting requirement on more than 30 million entities such as small businesses, sports clubs, civic groups, and political organizations.

The CTA comprised only 21 pages, camouflaged among nearly 1,500 total pages in a rushed, end-of-year annual appropriation in 2020. With its threatened punishment of two years in federal jail, the CTA requires that tens of millions of ordinary, law-abiding Americans report their home addresses, birthdates, and driver’s license or similar personal identifying numbers to the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), the Complaint states.

FinCEN will then create a massive new federal database for monitoring everyday Americans. Federal investigatory jurisdiction would vastly expand under this law, AAPS’s lead counsel, Andrew Schlafly states. “Most Americans are unaware of this extension in the reach of the federal government into purely local activities. This is the Orwellian Big Brother on steroids.”

AAPS filed this lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas. Small medical practices there and nationwide are being subjected to monitoring by the federal government in D.C.

“Nothing in the Constitution authorizes the federal government to monitor small medical practices and other local entities like this,” Mr. Schlafly points out. “Never before has the federal government been allowed to have such a broad police power over local activities,” he added.
Large businesses are exempt from the CTA if they have more than 20 full-time employees and more than $5 million in gross revenue. Also exempt are 501(c) organizations, such as recognized 501(c)(3) charity groups, as are political action committees (PACs) that support or oppose candidates for office.

“These exemptions are far too narrow, and this new requirement applies to most small entities,” Mr. Schlafly said. “This new law improperly chills the freedom of association that is essential to other freedoms.”

AAPS’s lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, No. 2:24-cv-210-Z.

Link to Complaint: https://aapsonline.org/judicial/aaps-v-treasury-9-26-2024.pdf

Link to Press Release: https://aapsonline.org/association-of-american-physicians-and-surgeons-aaps-sues-to-block-expansion-of-the-federal-police-state/