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Pushback: Lawsuit forces Rhode Island to let oral surgeon to reopen his practice

Oral surgeon Stephen Skoly, blackballed by Rhode Island
Oral surgeon Stephen Skoly, blackballed by Rhode Island

Today’s blacklist story is an update from a story in February, where I outlined how the Rhode Island health department had irrationally shut down the practice of oral surgeon Stephen Skoly — denying 800 patients dental treatment and putting ten employees out of work — simply because Skoly had refused to get the COVID jab for valid medical reasons, including the fact that he had already gotten the Wuhan flu, had anti-bodies, and had other health issues that made getting the shot ill-advised.

Skoly had sued Rhode Island’s governor, Democrat Daniel McKee, as well as the head of the state’s health department, James McDonald. It now appears the lawsuit had some positive impact:

In March 2022, after over five months of suspension, and three days before a court hearing where medical experts were to testify to the irrationality of Rhode Island’s conduct, Rhode Island finally relented. It agreed to treat the N95 masked Dr. Skoly the same as other unvaccinated N95 masked workers. Dr. Skoly was permitted to re-assemble his ten-person dental team and return to practice.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Skolly by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, has not been abandoned, and instead has been expanded because of the state’s decision to deny Skoly unemployment benefits.

The lawsuit, Skoly v. Daniel McKee and James McDonald, seeks declaratory relief that Rhode Island violated Dr. Skoly’s constitutional rights, a permanent injunction to prevent Rhode Island from violating his rights again, and damages in part for denying him unemployment insurance during the period of time when he was prevented from practicing.

You can read the amended complaint here [pdf]. NCLA has added Matthew D. Weldon, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, to the suit, because his department denied Skoly unemployment benefits, even though it was the government that had made it impossible for Skoly to work.

It also appears that blacklisting imposed on Skoly specifically because he had had the nerve to talk to the press about his case. From the complaint:

Defendants explained that because Dr. Skoly had “opened his big mouth” by speaking to the press, he had made his suspension a political issue, not a medical issue. Therefore, Dr. Skoly was told, his choice was to submit to vaccination or to stay suspended.

The lawsuit claims Skoly was denied due process, equal protection under the law, and his First Amendment right to speak his mind publicly. It demands a permanent injunction against the state’s COVID shot mandate, payment of $15,300 of unemployment benefits Skoly should have received, attorney’s fees, and “any other just and proper relief.” It also demands a jury trial, something I am sure the governor and his minions want to avoid, as their ugly illegal behavior will not be looked upon favorably by most ordinary citizens.

The wheels of justice grind slowly to justice, but grind they do. Of the many horrible stories I have documented of ordinary people being badly harmed by illegal and unjust actions of the government and others, more and more are getting resolved in favor of the oppressed, with the oppressors more and more facing real negative consequences.

Whether the governor and his subordinates will face punishment is still unknown. Sadly, the law has been shaped in the past half century to make such government officials immune from punishment, no matter how evil their acts. This immunity must end, the sooner the better. Hopefully the repeated abuse of power by government officials in the past two years will force this change.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • Max

    I must’ve missed it in the constitution, if you use your freedom of speech “open your big mouth” that it becomes a political issue no matter what your regress of grievances are?
    Does this apply to every subject? Or only those that are politically sensitive or politically correct?
    How are asking for information or help without opening our mouth? How can you be penalized for your opinion by the government when there’s no nondisclosure agreement?

    “Skoly had refused to get the COVID jab for valid medical reasons, including the fact that he had already gotten the Wuhan flu, had anti-bodies, and had other health issues that made getting the shot ill-advised.”

    Anyone heard the latest on the news? The big disclosure that came from the 80,000 page document dump?
    You know, the court order document dump that came out the same day that the abortion document leak turned the news cycle upside down? The same day that Pfizer and Moderna CEOs resigned?
    Their own documents show that the shots didn’t work, 12% effective for seven days then it drops to below one percent… As good as nothing! And that’s before the two week waiting period.
    Also showed they did zero testing on pregnant women before declaring it safe!
    Thousands of people who participated in the study are ghosts! At least the data that was collected on them was never used… This is outright fraud. The protection the pharmacies were granted under the emergency order cannot stand, none of the details that we were told how the shots will perform have come true, and their own data provides the evidence for a bait and switch for nefarious purposes!
    Billions paid for snake oil with the military help of project warp speed (The militaries attempt of taking over your Health care by trumps executive order and congresses approval)
    So the question is, what the pharmacies stand behind the military or the CDC as of shield of protection?

    I’ve waited a week to see if anybody else would post a comment about it, but most of the websites with the best documentation and commentary have been removed… The ministry of truth has been activated. History is being rewritten or outright deleted.

  • Max

    Here is a poor example, I will look harder for the ones I saw earlier. Perhaps they will be reposted elsewhere.
    https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/pfizers-new-80000-page-data-dump

  • wayne

    Just read through the Complaint.
    If the Public Advocate’s in Rhode Island were any good, they would join in this suit on behalf of all the psychiatric patients (as well as the inmates at the prison) who were systematically denied oral surgery from this Doctor.

  • Col Beausabre

    The screaming you are hearing is…..Musk, in a blow to fascism, has said he would reverse Twitter’s exile of Donald Trump. The Left is having a cosmic meltdown.

  • Dyspeptic Curmudgeon

    Now is the time to file an FOIA demand for documentation of the costs and expenses the gov’t has expended defending this suit.
    And another demanding release of all conversations between the Gov and the Unployment (! Sic) dept. regarding denial of his UI claim. This should become available in discovery but there us no guarantee that it will see the light of day as the suit might settle before it can legally be released.

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