Safeguarding Physician Free Speech

Denver, CO. - June 16, 2025

On June 11, 2025, Dr. Simone Gold and the AFLDS legal team filed an amici curiae brief with the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in support of Dr. Eric Cubin (Plaintiff-Appellant), in Cubin v. Gordon, 25-8021. Dr. Cubin is suing Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon (Defendant-Appellee) for terminating him from the state’s medical board in retaliation for the doctor's support of legislation that would prohibit (and has since passed) certain “gender-affirming” procedures for minors. By submitting an appeal to the Tenth Circuit, Dr. Cubin is asking the appellate court to restore him to his position on the Wyoming Board of Medicine by reversing the decision of the district court. 

Dr. Eric Cubin is a respected and accomplished doctor, appointed by Governor Mark Gordon to the Wyoming Board of Medicine in 2023. As a member of the Board, Dr. Cubin always fulfilled his duties and obligations in a professional, unbiased, and clinical manner based on the merits alone. Additionally, Cubin is a 15-year member of the Wyoming Medical Society (WMS), a voluntary organization of doctors that claims to represent the interests of physicians across the state.

In early 2024, the WMS publicly expressed its opposition to Chloe’s Law, a proposed bill that would restrict the ability of Wyoming doctors to provide “gender-affirming care” to minors, such as hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery. Because this public position did not reflect the perspective held by all of its members, Dr. Cubin contacted WMS leadership to express his concerns and request that the organization present the views of physicians on both sides of the issue. After the WMS repeatedly failed to address his concerns, Dr. Cubin emailed the Wyoming House of Representatives to express his personal support for Chloe’s Law and criticism of the WMS’s position against it. 

Chloe’s Law passed later that year with strong support from state lawmakers and was signed into law by Governor Mark Gordon. However, a month later, the governor removed Dr. Cubin from his position on the Board, explicitly citing his personal email to the House of Representatives as the reason for removal. As a result, Dr. Cubin suffered economic injury and harm to his professional reputation. Dr. Cubin sued Governor Gordon, alleging that his termination from the Board violated his First Amendment rights of free speech and petition - seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and damages. The district court denied Dr. Cubin’s motion for a preliminary injunction and he is now appealing to the Tenth Circuit.

America’s Frontline Doctors contends that by terminating Dr. Cubin for speaking accurate medical information in a private capacity, Governor Gordon exhibited unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and violated the doctor’s First Amendment rights. In other words, speech in favor of “gender-affirming care” was favored, while speech against these interventions was punished. This violates the First Amendment, and dangerously threatens physician free speech in the United States of America. Both of these viewpoints are equally entitled to the same First Amendment protections. 

Further, the medical harms of “gender-affirming care” (aka medical mutilation) are well documented and growing. Dr. Cubin must be free to engage in protected speech that is in the best interest of Wyoming’s minor children. He should not be punished or censored for courageously informing the public of medical facts which he knows to be correct. 

AFLDS attorney David Dalia states, “Chloe’s law is excellent and protects Wyoming’s minor children from irreversible surgical mutilations with lifelong consequences. Children are incapable of understanding these consequences, thus nullifying any possibility of informed consent. At least twenty-five other states have also banned these dangerous procedures which are known to drastically interfere with the normal functioning of children’s bodies. This must not be labeled transphobic. These are now well-known medical facts as they relate to minors, which have caused a widespread international retreat. Dr. Cubin’s courage in speaking the truth in support of Chloe’s Law in his private capacity was consistent with the AMA’s highest ethical principles of medicine, which call upon doctors to participate in activities which enhance public health, and to make relevant medical information publicly available. Dr. Cubin’s ethical stance is fully entitled to First Amendment protections.”   

AFLDS Founder and President Dr. Simone Gold added, “Governor Gordon’s decision to remove Dr. Cubin is emblematic of the ideological capture of state institutions. We need more doctors like Dr. Cubin on state medical boards, which increasingly usurp authority and operate as enforcers of political orthodoxy. Dr. Cubin was punished not for wrongdoing, but for dissent. He opposed a grotesque and radical agenda that sterilizes and harms children for life. The medical mutilation of children is not a political issue. It is a moral one. We need physicians on medical boards who pursue ethical medicine - not ideological enforcement.”

This pivotal free speech case has the potential to set a precedent for all doctors being punished for exercising their First Amendment rights. AFLDS proudly stands in solidarity with Dr. Cubin and ethical doctors everywhere. Together, we will continue standing for physician free speech and bring truth back to medicine. 

Stay tuned - We will keep you updated on the status of this case and our efforts to protect the free speech rights of all Americans. 

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Media Contact Lisa Alexander, Communications Director | Media@AFLDS.org