Virtual Veterinarian Victorious: IJ’s Oldest Case Succeeds After 12 Years

For Texas veterinarian Dr. Ron Hines, March 19, 2012, was a normal day. As usual, he’d been answering emails, giving advice about how to help pets, strays, and even wild animals. Disabled and getting older, Ron could no longer physically practice, but the miracle of the internet meant not just that he could spend his retirement doing what he loved but also that animal lovers around the world could benefit from his expertise.

That normal day then became decidedly abnormal when the Texas veterinary board told Ron he wasn’t allowed to email about specific animals. The state saw him as practicing veterinary medicine, and, in Texas, that’s illegal without physically examining the animal first. Ron couldn’t even talk about how to help an animal, even if it was on the other side of the planet—and even if the alternative was no help at all.

Enter IJ. We sued, arguing that it didn’t matter if Texas saw Ron’s speech as the practice of a profession. People wanted to hear what Ron had to say, and he had a First Amendment right to say it.

What happened next was a roller-coaster ride up and down (and up and down and up and down) every level of the federal court system. Ultimately, we lost the first case in 2015. But after the U.S. Supreme Court made clear in 2018 that there is no “professional speech” exception to the First Amendment, we jumped right back in the saddle to represent Dr. Hines again.

Across the two cases, we’ve battled through ten judicial rulings asking whether advice is speech. We’ve gone to the appeals court three times. We’ve sorted through emails about a dog in India, a cat in Scotland, and a pigeon in Iran. At one point, we even discovered that the state’s own expert witness has a call-in radio show where she gives veterinary advice about animals that she hasn’t examined in person.

Through it all, we’ve kept going. And this September, the 5th Circuit finally got things right, ruling that Ron’s advice is speech that Texas can’t censor. That’s good news for animals (and animal lovers) around the world, and it’s important precedent for everyone who wants to communicate useful information—including people who speak for a living.

On a personal note, this case reminds me just how lucky I am to be working at a public interest firm whose donors support it for the long haul. Doing some of the early research for Ron’s case was one of my assignments when I was an IJ law clerk during law school, just over a dozen years ago. When I started full time at IJ in 2018, Ron was one of my first clients. By the third appeal earlier this year, I was standing in front of three federal judges and arguing the case myself. I’ve grown up as a lawyer alongside it.

And now, after a long time coming, we have finally won. So here’s to Ron, here’s to IJ, and here’s to keeping free speech free for the next dozen years (and beyond)!

Andrew Ward is an IJ attorney.