If you’re a federal health employee and having concerns about your ability to speak in your personal capacity, reach out to info@knightcolumbia.org.

Maybe this is poorly drafted, but maybe that's part of the point. We all know that in the absence of clarity, employees and scientists will feel scared to speak out even in their personal capacities.

But it also blurs the line between regulating HHS’s speech and controlling employees’ private speech, prohibiting participation in public events and prohibiting employees from issuing any documents or communications (would this include posting an HHS doc on their personal social media accounts?).

Importantly, Tuesday's memo from the Acting HHS secretary makes clear that personal correspondence (at least with public officials) isn’t affected. That would be blatantly unconstitutional.

www.science.org/do/10.1126/s...

In 2020, Trump’s team acted similarly to consolidate and control the speech of public scientists and researchers at a crucial time: the start of the pandemic. @knightcolumbia.org eventually sued to understand exactly how those speech restrictions worked.

knightcolumbia.org/cases/knight...