Remember the Rush Limbaugh painkiller story from about 1.5 years ago?

Florida has a law making it a felony to doctor shop in order to get multiple prescriptions for controlled substances.

Allegations arose from Rush’s housekeeper that she sold Rush painkillers. Authorities began an investigation.

Police seized records from doctors’ offices, and prescriptions records from pharmacies.

Rush and the ACLU - YES —- The American Civil Liberties Union - That Communist unAmerican organization that Rush and the religious right love to hate - fought to stop the police from using the medical info.

The case has been winding its way through the legal system. Lower court judges have ruled that the police CAN use the records. Now, the Florida Supreme Court has declined to overturn those rulings.

So, the police will get to break the court-seal on those records, or else Rush and the ACLU might get the US Supreme Court to agree to hear the case.

Rush’s case presents somewhat of an ethical dilemma for freedom loving folks like me. On the one hand, I’d love to see Rush exposed as a drug addict who committed felonies while trying to get enough dope to satisfy his habit. (See, he’s not so GD moral after all, is he? Who the hell does he think is pretending to be Mr. Virtue, when he’s just an ordinary human lilke the rest of us? The Repubs aren’t any better than anyone else, no matter how much flag-waving and Bible thumping they do — etc.)

On the other hand, intoxicants should be legal and regulated for consenting adults to purchase (to a large extent anyway - nothing is absolute of course). And so, the Florida felony law which Rush may have violated is a bad law from the liberty perspective.

So I’d love to see Rush humiliated, but I don’t like the law that might be the vehicle for the humiliation.

In the end, I think I’d rather see Rush win this one. I hope the US Supreme Court takes his case and overturns the lower court decision allowing the police to go on fishing expeditions through our medical records.

Such a decision by the Supreme Court of the US would be a pro-freedom decision, and one of the few times in the last 30 years that the Court has limited investigative police power.

Put me in Rush’s corner on this one.

CNN.com - Court denies Limbaugh’s appeal - Apr 28, 2005
The Florida Supreme Court has turned down conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh’s request to review a lower court decision that the state could seize his medical records.

In a 4-3 decision, the court said it would not consider a motion for rehearing.

Limbaugh has been under investigation into whether he illegally went from doctor to doctor to get multiple painkiller prescriptions.