Judge denies Casper doctor’s immediate request for reinstatement to medical board

CASPER, Wyo. — A federal judge has denied a Casper doctor’s immediate request to be reinstated to the Wyoming Board of Medicine after Governor Mark Gordon effected his removal earlier this year.

“The Court has little difficulty concluding that Governor Gordon has a significant interest in assuring members of the Board can perform their Board functions without perceived or actual bias or prejudice,” Chief U.S. District of Wyoming Judge Scott Skavdahl said in a ruling signed Nov. 14.

Dr. Eric Cubin, a radiologist in Casper, supported a bill to regulate gender-affirming surgeries for children, known as Chloe’s Law, which passed with Gordon’s signature earlier this year.

While that bill worked its way through the legislature in February, the Wyoming Medical Society was weighing its position and how it would advise lawmakers. In the end, the advocacy group’s executive director testified in opposition, Skavdahl noted in the factual summary.

Cubin, unsure of how the WMS would testify, decided to write an email directly to lawmakers and make his supportive position clear.

“He also said more than that, though,” Skavdahl wrote. 

In Cubin’s email to the lawmakers, he also accused the Wyoming Medical Society’s leadership of suppressing countervailing opinions and being captured by “woke” and “far-left” ideology.

The bill passed, but in April, Gordon’s chief of staff called Cubin to let him know that he was being relieved of his position on the Board of Medicine. At Cubin’s request, he was allowed to resign.

In August, Cubin sued Gordon seeking his position back on the board, saying Gordon had unjustly retaliated for Cubin’s expression of his First Amendment rights.

Gordon’s attorneys replied that Cubin’s strident expression of politics could impact the ability of the Wyoming Board of Medicine to perform its core functions with the necessary impartiality, both in fact and appearance.

By statute, the board has the authority to “grant, refuse to grant, suspend, restrict, revoke, reinstate or renew licenses to practice medicine.” It also investigates and rules on allegations of malpractice.

“Dr. Cubin’s email could also cause others, such as those on the ‘left’ of the partisan divide, to also question whether Dr. Cubin would be a fair and impartial arbiter for them,” Skavdahl wrote. His ruling cited case law which stated, “‘We have said the ‘only public employer interest that outweighs the employee’s free speech interest is avoiding direct disruption, by the speech itself of the public employer’s internal operations and employment relationships.”

“The real issue here is not that Dr. Cubin expressed his personal support of SF0099 to the Wyoming House,” Skavdahl wrote. “Instead, the real issue is that Dr. Gubin’s comments to the Wyoming House went beyond his support for SF0099 and into his disputes with WMS and specific doctors, the same doctors who may appear before the Board to answer a complaint with their medical licenses and livelihoods in jeopardy.”

Cubin’s attorneys said in filings that his termination from the board had “reasonably chilled him from continuing to engage in such speech.” The case record includes a petition to Gordon to reinstate Cubin, signed by over 5,300 Wyoming residents.

“Since my removal I feel I have suffered reputational harm as news articles reporting on my removal have created the impression that I am biased against the transgender community,” Cubin wrote on the petition.

“The articles, and the Governor’s own words call into question my professionalism and ability to be objective,” Cubin wrote. “As a physician, objectivity and professionalism are important.”

The ruling only denies Cubin’s request for immediate reinstatement, and Skavdahl noted that the legal bar for granting such relief is high. He noted that the case record is incomplete and that ruling did not prevent further litigation.