By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: June 23, 2011
WASHINGTON -- Data ... is speech that is protected by the First Amendment, and pharmaceutical companies have every right to buy that information and use it to target their marketing efforts, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The nation's high court handed down a verdict Thursday in the Sorrell v. IMS Health case, striking down by a 6-3 vote a 2007 Vermont law that that bans the practice of data mining -- the sale and use of prescriber-identifiable information for marketing or promoting a drug, including drug detailing -- unless a physician specifically gives his or her permission to use the information.
Vermont argued that selling identifying information is "conduct," not "speech," but the Supreme Court didn't buy that and ruled that "the creation and dissemination of information are speech for First Amendment purposes."
KILLERCOP: " She said she would meet with me the
following week to discuss this matter further. As with all of Ms. Potashner's promises, she failed to keep her promise to
meet with me the following week or to provide details of the
secret investigation she and the public defender's office
allegedly had conducted of the torture.
"I would like the record to reflect that I
don't like being yelled at by Your Honor." ~Killercop to Judge Howard Matz, Transcript of 12.04.2002 Case CR-02-350(A)-AHM
MS. DUARTE: "I MEAN, I'M NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT
SPEECH. I JUST WANT THE COURT TO BE CLEAR ON THAT."
JUDGE MATZ: "NO, NO, I UNDERSTAND THAT. AND I
UNDERSTAND THE CONCERN THAT THIS "COULD" ESCALATE. AND BELIEVE
ME, IF THERE WERE -- "IF" THERE WERE REAL INDICIA OF THAT, THAT
I DIDN'T -- YOU KNOW, "IF" THERE WAS ANYTHING ABOUT USING THAT
RIFLE, OR ANYTHING IN HIS PAST CONDUCT -- I MEAN, YOU HAVE
SOME CRIMINAL RECORD, BUT IT'S NOT -- IT REALLY WOULD NOT
RISE TO THE LEVEL, I DON'T THINK, IN AND OF ITSELF CERTAINLY,
OF POSING A REALISTIC THREAT OF VIOLENCE.
"Is it possible that the price that you are referring to that had some meaning, some hidden meaning, could be referring to the terms and the conditions upon the first page that we looked at, called index.htm, had been violated and that the owner felt that the money owed was for violating the terms of those conditions to enter the website freely?"
Henry Louis Gates' Contempt Of Cop Emptywheel - At tonight's nationally televised press conference, a reporter asked President Obama a question about the July 16 arrest of famed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Obama set off...
Contempt of Cop' by William Norman Grigg - The police are to the government as the edge is to the knife, insists sociologist David Bayley, who apparently couldn't explain why the typical...
Welcome to America Now step inside the jail cell - The audio exchange in this video was apparently recorded at the U.S. Canada border after a Canadian displayed contempt-of-cop towards the American law enforcement officer asking questions.
Contemptible police tactics - Cops raid the home of a licensed medical marijuana provider in Washington, handcuff the fourteen year old son and put a gun to his head, and search the nineteen year old daughter and take the contents of her mickey-mouse wallet.
How To Survive Traffic Stops in America, Submit, Instantly! - What the cops want is immediate obedience and submission. Many cops are ex-military and view the civilian motorists of America about like they viewed the hapless peasants of Iraq and Afghanistan, that is, with contempt, not as fellow citizens deserving of civility and respect. It is a possibly lethal mistake to do anything other than submit, instantly and obey! Or be ready to shoot first. But aim high.