Jerry R. England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners

259 F.2d 626, 1958 U.S. App. LEXIS 4767

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Decided: September 9, 1958
• Docket: 16920_1
• Status: Published

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This case was originally assigned to Judge Wisdom, who has written an opinion, which has been changed to appear as the dissenting opinion, fully and fairly developing the issues and concluding in affirmance of the district court’s judgment in accordance with the tentative vote of all three judges in conference. Upon further, study and deliberation, however, Judges Rives and Brown now believe that the district court erred in dismissing the complaint for lack of a substantial federal question warranting exercise of jurisdiction. Ex parte Por-esky, 290 U.S. 30, 54 S.Ct. 3, 78 L.Ed. 152.

We are not called on at this time to say whether chiropractors should be admitted to practice in Louisiana, but the question is whether they are entitled to an opportunity to prove that the State’s denial of their claimed right to practice an allegedly useful profession is so arbitrary and unreasonable as to amount to a denial of due process or of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. It is certainly true that the State is not bound to recognize every peculiar theory or school of medicine. Without doubt it is reasonable for the state to outlaw witch doctors, voodoo queens, bee stingers, and various other cults which no reasonably intelligent man would choose for the treatment of his ills, but it would certainly be arbitrary to exclude some, if not all, of the following classes which Louisiana does admit to practice: dentists, osteopaths, nurses, chiropodists, optometrists, pharmacists, and midwives. Just where is the dividing line? Under all of the cases, we think it is that the State cannot deny to any individual the right to exercise a reasonable choice in the method of treatment of his ills, nor the correlative right of practitioners to engage in the practice of a useful profession.

The case closest in point to that now presented is Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners v. Fife, 1926, 162 La. 681, 111 So. 58, 54 A.L. R. 594, affirmed in a Per Curiam opinion on May 2, 1927, 274 U.S. 720, 47 S.Ct. 590, 71 L.Ed. 1324. In the thirty odd years since that decision was rendered, we judicially know that the healing art in general has made further enormous progress away from the ancient days when barbers did the blood letting. Can we say without hearing the evidence that chiropractic is no more entitled to recognition today than it was thirty odd years ago? It is claimed that the practice of chiropractic has now been legalized in forty-four of the States, in Hawaii, and in the District of Columbia, and that respectable colleges of chiropractic have been founded with courses comparable in length and claimed to be equal in quality to the medical colleges. It is not denied that the state may regulate, within reasonable bounds, the practice of chiropractic for the protection of the public health; but it is claimed that the requirements of a diploma from a college approved by the American Medical Association and a knowledge of surgery and materia medica bear no reasonable relation to the practice of chiropractic. Without hearing the evidence, we cannot say that those claims are untrue, or that a reasonable man might not intelligently choose a chiropractor for the treatment of some particular ailment. We hold simply that the plaintiffs are entitled to a day in court, to an opportunity to prove their case. The judgment is therefore reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

Reversed and remanded.