The State of Vermont is petitioning the Supreme Court to review a Court of Appeals decision holding that the State’s prescription confidentiality law is unconstitutional.
The law at issue prohibits regulated entities from selling or using records containing prescriber-identifiable information—i.e., information linking prescribers to prescriptions for particular drugs—for marketing or promoting prescription drugs, unless the prescriber consents.
The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the law is an impermissible restriction on commercial speech under the First Amendment, reversing and remanding the district court. This ruling is being compared to two First Circuit decisions upholding prescription confidentiality laws in Maine and New Hampshire.
In its petition, Vermont points to other States that have considered legislation to restrict the commercial use of prescriber-identifiable data, and urges the Supreme Court to weigh in to provide States and other regulators with “guidance as to the scope of their ability to allow individual Americans to control access to and use of their information.”