WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is questioning whether
state laws aimed at the marketing of prescription drugs to doctors violate free
speech rights.

The court took up a dispute Tuesday between the state of Vermont and companies
that sell doctors’ prescribing information to pharmaceutical companies. The
drug makers use the data to tailor their pitch to individual doctors.

The Vermont
law had prevented the sale of information about individual doctors’ prescribing
records without the doctors’ permission.

Chief Justice John Roberts at one point said the Vermont law seemed to be
“censoring” what doctors could hear.

A federal appeals struck down the Vermont
law, but another court upheld similar laws in Maine
and New Hampshire.