Doctors Sue California Over ‘Implicit Bias’ Training Law

In California, a group of doctors have sued the state over a recently-passed law that mandates “implicit bias” training for physicians in continuing education courses.

As the Daily Caller reports, Assembly Bill 241, passed in 2019, is a law that forces all doctors to undergo “implicit bias” training, where they are taught that they have “unconscious bias” against racial minorities. The lawsuit was filed by two doctors, Azadeh Khatibi and Marilyn Singleton, with the assistance of the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the medical activist group Do No Harm.

“Requiring this training forces instructors to espouse views they may find unpersuasive and unsupported by evidence,” PLF said in a press release. “Implicit bias is far from an established fact, yet the law demands that CME instructors presume all healthcare providers are infected with implicit bias and thus treat patients differently.”

“Neither doctors nor patients need California legislators to tell them what they should be thinking about or what advice they should be giving when treating their patients,” the PLF added.

The lawsuit argues that forcing doctors to undergo such training violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.

Doctors in California have faced numerous laws in recent years that aim to curtail their rights to freedom of expression. Another law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), Assembly Bill 2098, issued penalties for any doctor who disagreed with the government narrative on the Chinese coronavirus. A preliminary injunction was issued against AB 2098 in January by Judge William B. Shubb, who called it a violation of the First Amendment.