A federal judge has dismissed Dr. Scott Jensen’s lawsuit against the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice. The 2022 Republican nominee for Minnesota governor, Jensen was suing the board for allegedly stifling his First Amendment rights during the 2022 gubernatorial race.
Jensen announced the dismissal after U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell granted the board’s motion to have the case thrown out. This was the second time Blackwell has dismissed Jensen’s lawsuit against the board.
A longtime Minnesota family doctor, Jensen said he will appeal the judge’s decision to another federal court, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a Wednesday morning video, Jensen explained that the board investigated him six times after he began to make statements critical of the scientific consensus on COVID-19 deaths. However, the doctor said it was the fifth investigation, which occurred during his campaign for governor, that had a chilling effect on his speech.
“For an entire year, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice’s fifth investigation hung over me, my family, and my campaign to be the next governor of Minnesota,” said Jensen. “Over my head for an entire year despite the fact that the Board of Medical Practice typically advises that they try to resolve these concerns within three to four months, but I heard from them not for one entire year.”
Jensen had never been investigated by the board prior to 2020, and every investigation found no cause to issue findings against Jensen.
“This lawsuit focuses on the weaponization of a government agency to infringe upon freedom of speech, and its reach goes way beyond my medical license,” wrote Jensen in a newsletter. “This lawsuit fights against government overreach into the lives of anybody who might be registered or licensed or certified by a government agency.”
Alpha News previously reported on this topic when Jensen first sued the board in 2023. In the lawsuit, Jensen alleged that the investigations threatened his medical license and were conducted because of his publicly stated opinions about COVID-19 as well as other forms of political speech.
A year ago, Judge Blackwell dismissed the first case without prejudice after ruling that Jensen lacked standing because his speech was not chilled during the board’s investigation. Jensen refiled his lawsuit in April of 2024 only to have it dismissed without prejudice earlier this week due to a lack of standing.
In his decision, Judge Blackwell said “Still absent are plausible allegations that [Jensen’s] speech was actually chilled or that any resulting harm amounts to a constitutional injury rather than regulatory inconvenience. Having failed twice to establish standing, Jensen’s claims must again be dismissed.”
Jensen’s lawyer on the lawsuit, Greg Joseph, has previously noted that the longtime family doctor is willing to pursue justice “all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”
“Judge Blackwell’s decision that I lack legal standing because my speech was not chilled perplexes and disappoints me,” said Jensen. “There is no question in my mind that during the 2022 Minnesota gubernatorial campaign my words and expressions were remarkably and obviously ‘chilled’ because of a fear of reprisal from the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice.”
The Upper Midwest Law Center, which also represented Jensen on the case, said Jensen declined to speak in certain forums and was forced to divert a substantial amount of time to defending his speech.
“Dr. Jensen will appeal, and he will win. Dr. Jensen had never been investigated by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice in over 40 years of medical practice. He was selected from thousands of candidates to be the 2016 Minnesota Family Practice Doctor of the Year. Suddenly, because he was willing to speak out and subsequently chose to run for governor, he was investigated by his licensing board—appointed by his opponent—five times,” said UMLC senior counsel James Dickey.
“Anyone in his shoes would think twice about talking after that experience. He was obviously harmed by these frivolous speech investigations. The First Amendment stands in the way of that kind of weaponized government censorship.”
Sarah Prentice
Sarah Prentice has previously written for Campus Reform and worked as an intern at Media Research Center. While continuing to pursue her degree in political science, she worked full-time in communications and media outreach for a pro-woman, pro-life non-profit. Now a fellow at Alpha News during her senior year of college, she hopes to graduate with her political science degree from SUNY Brockport and combine it with her media and communications experience to pursue political journalism. She has a special interest in reporting on stories related to social issues, education, public health, and religious freedom.
