After the American Medical Association (AMA), American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Children’s Hospital Association asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate people and organization who speak out against gender transition surgeries for minors, a U.S. senator from Tennessee wrote to the DOJ to ensure the protection of Americans’ First Amendment rights.
“We write to express our concern with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) continued pattern of abusing its investigative authority to police the speech of Americans and stifle ongoing policy debates,” said a letter penned by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and co-signed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TN), among others.
The letter continues:
On October 3, 2022, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association, sent you a joint letter calling on the DOJ to ‘investigate and prosecute organizations, individuals, and entities’ that they assert are involved in “an intentional campaign of disinformation” surrounding the debate over whether minors should receive experimental gender reassignment procedures.
This request by advocacy organizations to have the federal government stifle critical speech on their behalf would have been unthinkable before your tenure as Attorney General. It is important to note that violence and threats are not protected speech and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, parents who voice their concerns about the health and safety of their children, or express opinions on matters of public policy more generally, are engaged in core First Amendment activity.
“Senator Ted Cruz and I are taking a stand against the DOJ’s attempts to silence those who speak out against protecting children from mutilation,” Blackburn told The Tennessee Star Thursday by email. “A bedrock principle in American self-governance is that the federal government has no place in quashing or criminalizing civic discourse. We will not allow the Biden administration to control Americans’ freedom of speech.”
Tennessee’s Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti also wrote to the DOJ about the requested investigations, as reported by The Star.
“We, the undersigned State Attorneys General, write to express our deep concern with the recent letter you received from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association asking you to investigate and prosecute people who question the medical establishment’s current treatment of children struggling with gender dysphoria,” his letter said. “You cannot and should not undertake such investigations or prosecutions.”
“We emphatically agree that anyone engaged in violent crime or threats of violence should be investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities. But the medical organizations are asking you for much more than that. They are asking you to direct the criminal enforcement power of the federal government not only at those committing or threatening violence but also at those whose speech may ‘provoke’ such threats.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Marsha Blackburn. Photo “Ted Cruz” by Ted Cruz.
