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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida law restricting what doctors can tell patients about gun ownership was deemed to be constitutional Friday by a federal appeals court, which said it legitimately regulates professional conduct and doesn't violate the doctors' First Amendment free speech rights.

The ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned a previous decision that had declared the law unconstitutional.

An injunction blocking enforcement of the law is still in effect, however.

The 2011 law, which had become popularly known as "Docs vs. Glocks," was challenged by organizations representing 11,000 state health providers, including the Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians

Doctors who break the law could potentially be fined and lose their licenses.

By a 2-1 decision, the appeals court upheld the law as a protection of patient privacy rights and said that the limits imposed by it were "incidental."

"The act simply codifies that good medical care does not require inquiry or record-keeping regarding firearms when unnecessary to a patient's care," states the opinion written by U.S. Circuit Judge Gerald Tjoflat.

In a lengthy dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson called the law an infringement of First Amendment rights.

"The act prohibits or significantly chills doctors from expressing their views and providing information to patients about one topic, and one topic only, firearms," Wilson wrote.

"Regardless of whether we agreed with the message conveyed by doctors to patients about firearms, I think it is perfectly clear that doctors have a First Amendment right to convey that message."

Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature adopted the Firearm Owners' Privacy Act after an Ocala couple complained that a doctor had asked them about guns.

The couple say they refused to answer and the physician refused to see them again.
The measure signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott prohibited doctors from asking patients about their ownership or recording that information in medical records unless it was medically necessary.
http://news.yahoo.com/federal-court-...213010665.html

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