Paleo Diet Blogger's Free Speech Suit Allowed to Move Forward

North Carolina trying to censor over lack of credentials

This morning, in a big win for free speech, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that diabetic blogger Steve Cooksey's First Amendment lawsuit against the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition may go forward.

Cooksey ran a Dear Abby-style advice column on his blog in which he gave one-on-one advice about how to follow the low carbohydrate "paleo" diet. The Board deemed Cooksey's advice the unlicensed practice of nutritional counseling, sent him a 19-page print-up of his website indicating in red pen what he was and was not allowed to say, and threatened him with legal action if he did not comply.

The decision reverses a previous ruling by a federal district judge that had dismissed Cooksey's case, reasoning that advice is not protected speech and hence Cooksey had suffered no injury to his First Amendment rights.