First Amendment, Coronavirus/COVID-19, Constitutional Challenges

Investigations Newsletter: Johnson & Johnson Challenges the Constitutionality of FCA $1.6 Billion Verdict

ArentFox Schiff on 7/28/2025

Johnson & Johnson Challenges the Constitutionality of FCA $1.6 Billion Verdict - Following a record $1.6 billion jury verdict for off-label promotion of HIV drugs Prezista and Intelence, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary...more

What Would John Wilkes Booth Do? Mandatory COVID Vaxes for Actors

Proskauer - California Employment Law on 4/1/2025

Although the threat of COVID-19 (remember that?) seems to have diminished considerably over the past five years, once upon a time in Hollywood many production companies (along with other employers) required employees to be...more

Supreme Court to Decide Federal Government’s Ability to Engage with Social Media Companies in Content Moderation

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on 10/27/2023

After previously finding that the Biden White House and the FBI likely violated First Amendment free speech protections for some users of online social media platforms, the Fifth Circuit expanded its ruling to find that the...more

Ninth Circuit Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Nevada Medical Debt Legislation; Also Finds Legislation Not Preempted by FDCPA...

Troutman Pepper Locke on 6/26/2023

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s denial of preliminary injunctive relief to plaintiffs challenging Nevada Senate Bill 248 (S.B. 248), which places new restrictions on the collection of...more

Smucker’s Out of a Jam: Sixth Circuit Says Being a Federal Contractor Does Not Make You a State Actor

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 3/21/2023

If you take on a federal contract, does that make you a state actor? No, according to a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker Company. During World War II, the Army included Smucker’s apple butter in its...more

Sixth Circuit Says Private Employers Not Subject to First Amendment Claims From Anti-Vax Workers

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 3/17/2023

When a social media platform bans a celebrity or politician due to violation of its rules and standards, we frequently hear that individual complain that the action violates their First Amendment rights to free speech. Every...more

Federal Judge Enjoins Physician Gag Law

Allen Matkins on 1/26/2023

Last year, the California legislature enacted statutory changes ostensibly to limit the spread of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 by licensed physicians. 2022 Cal. Stats. ch. 938 (AB 2098)....more

Judge Slaughter Refuses To Enjoin Physician Gag Statute

Allen Matkins on 1/3/2023

Last year, the California legislature enacted statutory changes ostensibly to limit the spread of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 by licensed physicians. 2022 Cal. Stats. ch. 938 (AB 2098). Two California...more

Federal 'Vaccinate or Test' Mandate Stayed Pending Legal Challenge

Lowndes on 11/15/2021

As anticipated, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) “vaccinate” or “test and mask” rule for large private employers, issued as an emergency temporary standard (ETS), came...more

Federal Appeals Court Won't Delay New York Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 11/12/2021

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a motion last week for a preliminary injunction filed by health care workers who object to a New York state COVID-19 vaccination mandate. The New York mandate contains medical...more

The CDC’s Eviction Moratorium Challenged Again, But Is It Different This Time?

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 8/24/2021

As I explained in greater detail here, on May 5, 2021, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia determined in Alabama Association of Realtors, et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human...more

University vaccine mandate constitutionality: A review of the US Seventh Circuit’s IU decision

Bricker Graydon LLP on 8/6/2021

In a succinct decision issued earlier this week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (including states Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin) refused to issue an injunction pending the outcome of a...more

Food and Beverage Law Update: July 2021

Holland & Knight LLP on 7/20/2021

"The overwhelming majority of courts have concluded that neither COVID-19 nor the governmental orders associated with it cause or constitute property loss or damage for purposes of insurance coverage." So concluded the...more

Pandemic Restriction Challenges Face Uphill Battle in California

Farella Braun + Martel LLP on 2/25/2021

On Dec.16, 2020, in Midway Venture LLC v. County of San Diego, the San Diego Superior Court preliminarily enjoined enforcement of two COVID-19-related California public health restrictions as applied to two adult...more

Another Lockdown Lifted: Are These Government Bans Constitutional?

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 1/6/2021

Restauranteurs across Pennsylvania breathed a collective sigh of relief this week as the three-week ban on indoor dining ordered by Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine came to an end. A struggling industry...more

Recent Federal Court Decision Upholds the Constitutionality of NYC Pandemic-Related Legislation Affecting Commercial Leases

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 12/7/2020

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently found that three laws enacted by the City of New York in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were constitutional, and dismissed a challenge to the...more

Pennsylvania Federal Judge Finds Governor Wolf’s Pandemic Restrictions Unconstitutional

Littler on 9/21/2020

Pennsylvania’s gathering limitations, business shutdown and stay-at-home orders violate the United States Constitution, according to a federal judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania, who enjoined enforcement of those...more

Pennsylvania Federal Judge Rules Governor’s Shutdown Orders Unconstitutional

Fisher Phillips on 9/18/2020

A federal court judge in Pennsylvania just ruled that the governor’s COVID-19 orders shutting down businesses and restricting gatherings are unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable. By striking them down, the judge set...more

Governor Wolf’s COVID-19 Orders Fall Under Constitutional Challenge

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC on 9/17/2020

Since March, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and his administration have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by imposing some of the strictest limitations in the country on the Commonwealth’s residents and businesses. Now, a...more

Federal Judge Strikes Down Key COVID-19 Orders in PA

Ballard Spahr LLP on 9/16/2020

On Monday, September 14, U.S. District Court Judge William S. Stickman IV became the first federal or state judge in Pennsylvania to strike down Governor Tom Wolf’s emergency orders relating to the COVID-19 pandemic....more

Federal Judge Rules PA COVID Shutdown Orders Unconstitutional – Governor Plans to Appeal

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 9/16/2020

On Monday, September 14, 2020, a federal judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania held that significant portions of Governor Wolf’s COVID-19 related shutdown orders were unconstitutional. Importantly, the Court’s ruling...more

Decoded: Technology Law Insights - Issue 5, September 2020 (Featuring Insights Video on the Trump/Twitter Feud over Section 230)

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC on 9/15/2020

A New Lawsuit Against Trump’s Section 230 Executive Order Argues It Chills Speech about Voting - "The suit accuses the president of using the order to retaliate against Twitter, infringing on the public's right to receive...more

First Amendment › Coronavirus/COVID-19 › Constitutional Challenges