Posted on 05/20/2005 3:14:24 PM PDT by wagglebee
The Florida Supreme Court paved the way, and now prosecutors looking to investigate Rush Limbaugh for "doctor shopping" have filed paperwork seeking to open his medical records.
Rush has never been charged with a crime, yet in 2003, authorities seized his medical records in order to ascertain whether or not he doctor shopped - i.e. went to different doctors at the same time to get overlapping prescriptions - for painkillers.
At 8:30 Monday morning, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff will hold a hearing to decide what to do with Limbaugh's heretofore personal, confidential records, reports Florida's Sun-Sentinel paper.
The judge has had them since late 2003, but hasn't been able to look at them because they were sealed pending Limbaugh's appeal to Florida's high court, which refused to hear Limbaugh's case, essentially allowing for prosecutors to have the chance to peruse the records.
Limbaugh's attorneys are hoping they can persuade Judge Winikoff to unseal only those records that pertain to the case.
Critics of Palm Beach prosecutor have noted his affiliation with the Democratic party and suggest politics are behind the criminal probe. For example, the Palm Beach Post could find no one charged for doctor shopping who had undergone rehabilitation -- as has been the case with Limbaugh.
The Judicial Tyrants of Florida defecated on the privacy laws put int effect by the Republican Florida Legislature. This persecution of Limbaugh is hypocritical and evil in the extreme.
"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others (rights) retained by the people."
Is it not clearly a right "retained by the people" to ingest the chemical of your choice, in the quantity of your choice, for your individual pain?
DougFir
Since May 20, 2005
Welcome to Free Republic!!
If they want you they got you.
=======
Yeah ... they had me too ... until they snapped a pic of me in my underwear !!! ;-))
I hope his attys have considered your Amendment IX idea. This is so clearly a political witch hunt and my heart aches for Rush that it has to be played out on the public stage. Rush has been tackled, but thank God he got back up and is running rough shod over these bastards via the Golden EIB microphone and the political pressure he, his attys and his fans are putting on these dem bastards. May they rot in HELL!
BWhaaaaa! What constitutional rights? Go see the latest version of the Star Wars movie. Order a pizza. Watch CBS News or CNN. Be Happy! Forget about that old constitution thing...
This may be witch hunt but Rush, as he has admitted, became a drug addict, using legal drugs to excess, perhaps illegally. This guy ain't white as the drive snow (except for his skin color perhaps).
I know we depserately need modern-day heros to look up to but I am afraid too many people see this man as some kind of hero when he is simply a loquacious entertainer with a big ego shtick.
And three divorces.
Compare this witch hunt with the fact that our very own President Clinton refused to make his medical history public- something that was unheard of until then. Hounding him about those records would have been reasonable. This is not.
Can you imagine the neocommunist media outrage had some local prosecutor seized Al Franken's medical records hoping to find proof of rehab over time as further proof of heroin addiction?
And they are going after Rep. Delay using the same method. Demorat prosecutors are sure doing their political work. One wonders how many criminals are not being prosecuted while they busy themselves with these political trials.
Granted, I am a big fan...that said, Rush was never a big drug war guy, he even stated after this came out that the reason he didn't discuss drugs was because of his predicament. I have listened for years, and you characterization is way off base.
I'm not claiming otherwise, but I do object to the unconstitutional and unprecidented unfariness, that the DA's office has unloaded on a fellow citizen.
I know we depserately need modern-day heros to look up to but I am afraid too many people see this man as some kind of hero when he is simply a loquacious entertainer with a big ego shtick. And three divorces.
Hey, I've got a glass house and so do you. And I certainly will give credit where credit is due and like him or not, Rush Limbaugh is one of the main reasons the dems are out of power and throwing tantrums today. Rush is an entertainer, yes, but he's got his finger firmly on the Washington establishment's pulse. He lives and breaths politics and is probably lousy husband material, but I don't give a damn. He's a hero in my eyes and I'll forever be grateful to the man for waking all of us sheeple up!
Your afraid, don't be, we are all adults here, I think we can handle it.
BTW, I doubt anyone sees Rush as a "hero", nor would he want them to.
He is an adult too, and the last time I looked, a human being.
No divorces, ten divorces, there's only been one perfect human. Rush and I aren't the one.
If Rush broke the law and the authorities go through proper channels to investigate that, I support it.
That being said, he should get no better or no worse treatment than the next person would. If nobody has been prosecuted for physician shopping in Florida, it's a sharade to profess the need for justice when on a witch hunt singling out Limbaugh, or anyone else for that matter. Pulling a valid law outa your 'a--' just to 'get someone' isn't my idea of justice.
I do not agree with the idea the police should be able to enter a physician's office and take records at will. Even if a warrant exists, individuals should have reasonable right to privacy when it comes to their medical records.
I might have a reason to desire to see all law enforcement medical records, just to be sure the LEOs in my area are free from substance abuse or other critical job peformance impacting situations. Businesses could reasonably argue they should have access to our full medical records on a whim. Is that really where we want to head?
I realize there's already some laws in effect that do allow businesses to implement and see the results of drug testing. I do not want to see that expanded, or access to other information expanded.
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