Joining Chelsea Green Publishing and authors Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopath, and Ronnie Cummins in the suit against Warren is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known vaccine critic who wrote the forward to the book.
Chelsea Green Publishing was founded in 1984 to promote “progressive politics” along with “sustainable living…and, most recently, integrative health and wellness,” according to its website, and its titles have earned accolades from The New York Times and several other outlets.
Not this time, though, and in taking on Warren, the self-described “progressive” company is attacking one of its own, a powerful U.S. senator whose also known for her progressive politics.
The lawsuit filed in Seattle by Arnold & Jacobowitz cites Bantam Books v. Sullivan, a 1963 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that letters from lawmakers complaining of books constituted “thinly veiled threats” of repercussions, illegal “prior restraint” and the “suppression” of free speech, even if the letter’s author lacked “power to apply formal legal sanctions.”
Newsweek could not find information to confirm that the FDA disagrees.
“The CDC’s own science and data shows that vitamin D deficiency is a major issue when it comes to fighting COVID, so the book agrees with the CDC and Warren disagrees with both of them,” Arnold said.
Newsweek could find no conclusive scientific evidence to back up this claim.
“If unpopular speech can be regulated, then you guys in the media are next, frankly,” Arnold told Newsweek. “If the First Amendment doesn’t protect political speech, it’s basically gutted, and that’s not a partisan position. Ironically, my partner, the other guy on the name of the law firm, has an ‘Elizabeth Warren’ bumper sticker on his Toyota. We’re a left-leaning law firm, and I’d be shocked if less than 90 percent of our firm is vaccinated.”
The lawsuit notes that Warren’s letter suggests that selling the book is “unethical, unacceptable, and potentially unlawful,” though the attorneys wonder “what laws the sale of the Truth About COVID-19 is potentially breaking.”
Beyond monetary damages, the lawsuit is asking the court to declare Warren’s conduct to be “unlawful and unconstitutional” and to demand that she issue a “public retraction of her letter.”
Warren didn’t respond to a request for comment. If she does, this article will be updated.
Lawyers for the plaintiff argue in the lawsuit that the book, which has become a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-seller, “expresses viewpoints, ideas, opinions, facts and factual hypotheses about the pandemic that Senator Warren and many others in her political party not only disfavor but have systematically sought to suppress.”
“What Warren did is far too close to a digital version of book burning,” Arnold said.
Mercola also said his book speculates that the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, while Warren and others from her party had previously dismissed the notion as a conspiracy theory, and he says evidence points to him being right and them being wrong.
Warren’s letter also complains that the book predicted that pandemic restrictions (presumably mask-wearing, proof of vaccinations and social distancing) would become permanent, even though the authors’ statement included the word probably and the jury is still out as to how accurate or inaccurate their opinion will ultimately be.
“If Americans lose free speech, we lose everything,” Mercola said. “Most Americans clearly understand this and know if you truly defend free speech, you must defend the speech of those you disagree with.”
