Miami, FL – February 17, 2004 -- If the state’s wholesale seizure of Rush Limbaugh’s medical records is allowed to stand, laws protecting the privacy of every Floridian’s medical records would be rendered meaningless, Mr. Limbaugh’s defense attorneys said in a brief filed Tuesday with the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

The ACLU also filed a brief Tuesday supporting Mr. Limbaugh’s case, and an alliance of the National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain, The Florida Pain Initiative and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons also will file a supporting brief.

Prosecutors seized Mr. Limbaugh’s medical files from his doctors, disregarding the protections in the Florida Constitution and state law, Mr. Black argued in the brief.

If the seizure is allowed to stand, Mr. Black argued, “every prosecutor across this state will be able to seize entire medical files based on probable cause alone, in derogation of the statutory and constitutional right to privacy in our medical affairs.”

“What meaning would the patient protections in the Constitution and the law have if prosecutors could disregard them any time they wanted to?” Mr. Black said Tuesday. “As Mr. Limbaugh’s attorney, it is my duty to do everything I can to have his rights under the Constitution and the law restored. But the ACLU and the other groups have joined this case because the outcome will significantly affect everyone’s right to doctor-patient confidentiality and medical privacy.”