U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Stockton COVID lawsuit after state court overturned charges against doctors

May 4-The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Gonzaga and NBA legend John Stockton in his lawsuit against the Washington Medical Commission and the Washington State Office of the Attorney General regarding doctors who were sanctioned for COVID-19 misinformation.

The case is one of dozens the court declined to hear on appeal. The court did not elaborate .

Stockton, a vocal critic of COVID-19 policy and vaccination requirements, first filed a lawsuit in 2024 which claimed the pandemic-era rules restricted doctors from speaking against "the mainstream Covid narrative." Stockton filed the suit alongside several doctors who faced state sanctions for unprofessional conduct after they published opinion columns and other blog posts downplaying the effectiveness of COVID tests and vaccines and promoting alternative treatments.

The lawsuit alleged the discipline violated the doctors' First Amendment free speech rights and were overly vague.

One of the plaintiffs, retired ophthalmologist Dr. Richard Eggleston, faced state sanctions after he wrote a piece that ran in the Lewiston Tribune and a reader reported it. Following an investigation, Eggleston was charged with unprofessional conduct in August 2022.

Another plaintiff, Thomas Siler, was charged with unprofessional conduct after the Washington Medical Commission received complaints for COVID -related content published on his blog.

Lawyers representing the state attorney general's office asked for the case to be dismissed last month, arguing recent decisions in state courts made the appeal "moot."

In April, the state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a separate case where the Washington Court of Appeals ruled that the First Amendment prohibits the Washington Medical Commission from sanctioning doctors based on COVID-19 treatment and prevention information published online. The decision not to hear the appeal made the ruling final.

Following the decision, the Commission withdrew statements of charges against both Siler and Eggleston.

In an April 13 letter to the U.S. Supreme Court, a lawyer for the Washington Attorney General's office said the state Supreme Court's decision and the Commission withdrawing charges against the plaintiffs made the federal lawsuit unnecessary.

"Petitioners Eggleston and Siler brought this suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to terminate the Commission's ongoing proceedings against them," Peter B. Gonick, a deputy solicitor general, wrote. "They have now received that relief. Because they have now obtained the relief they sought, there is no further controversy for this Court to adjudicate."

Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for Attorney General Nick Brown, said in a statement Monday that the "district court and Ninth Circuit applied decades of clear precedent in dismissing this lawsuit."

"It's not surprising the Supreme Court saw no need to review these obviously correct judgments," Faulk wrote.

In response, a lawyer representing Stockton argued the case should proceed, as it impacted more than the two doctors who were sanctioned.

"The constitutional interest at stake goes beyond the liberty of the speaker," lawyer Richard Jaffe wrote on April 14. "It is the right of every citizen to hear information and to think for herself, even when the government does not agree with the information and opinions conveyed."

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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 1:41 PM.