John Watson v. State of Maryland

• Decision Date: 31 May 1910
• Docket Number: No. 174,174
• Citation: 30 S.Ct. 644,218 U.S. 173,54 L.Ed. 987
• Parties: JOHN A. WATSON, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF MARYLAND
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

218 U.S. 173

30 S.Ct. 644

54 L.Ed. 987

JOHN A. WATSON, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF MARYLAND.

No. 174.

Argued and submitted April 27, 1910.

Decided May 31, 1910.

Messrs. Charles G. Watson and Ferdinand Williams for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Isaac Lobe Straus for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff in error was convicted in the circuit court of Allegany county, Maryland, for a violation of § 99 of article 43 of the Maryland Code of 1904, for the offense of practising medicine in the state of Maryland without being registered in accordance with the provisions of §§ 83 and 89 of the same article. The Maryland act in question, requiring registration of physicians, provides a comprehensive system for the regulation of the practice of medicine and surgery, and, concerning the necessity of registration, enacts (art. 43, § 83):

'All persons, except physicians who were practising medicine in this state prior to the 1st day of January, 1898, who are now practising medicine or surgery, and can prove by affidavit that within one year of said date said physician had treated in his professional capacity at least twelve persons, who shall commence the practice of medicine or surgery in any of their branches after the 11th day of April, 1902, shall make a written application for license to the president of either board of medical examiners,' etc.

The statute requires proof of good moral character, certain school education, and makes provision as to the effect of diplomas from certain medical colleges, and as to other and various details required of an applicant for the practice of medicine or surgery.

The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the court of appeals of Maryland (105 Md. 650, 66 Atl. 635), and the case is brought here to review that judgment, because of alleged violation of certain rights secured to the plaintiff in error by the Federal Constitution. The first of these grounds concerns § 80 of the same act, which provides for the sending of notice to physicians practising in the state without being legally registered, and further providing that those physicians being entitled to register, and yet have failed to comply at the expiration of four months from the election of the secretary-treasurer of the board, shall be prosecuted; and that no one after the 11th day of April, 1902, shall be allowed to practise medicine or surgery without being duly registered according to the provision of the subtitle.

The contention of the plaintiff in error is that there being no charge in the indictment, nor proof in the case, that he was furnished with this notice, his conviction was without due process of law. But the court of appeals of Maryland, examining this question, determined that § 99, under which the indictment was prosecuted, making it a misdemeanor to attempt to practise medicine in the state of Maryland without registration, was not subject to the limitations of § 80, relating to the sending of the notice, etc.

The offense, the court of appeals held, was created solely by § 99 in broad and general language, without exceptions or qualification, and that for conviction under that section it was not essential to prove the sending of the notice required by § 80. This construction of the Maryland statute is conclusive upon us. The accused had a trial before a court and jury under the statutes of Maryland, was proceeded against under the forms provided for by the laws of that state, and under a statute which the highest court of the state has held completely defined the offense without resorting to the necessity of notifying unregistered physicians before they became liable for the penalties of the act for practising without registration. The contention that the conviction in this aspect was without due process of law under the Federal Constitution cannot be sustained.

It is next contended that § 83 violates the Federal Constitution, in the 14th Amendment thereof, in denying to the plaintiff in error the equal protection of the laws, in that it makes unreasonable and arbitrary distinction in its classification of physicians, including some and excluding others, and in making unreasonable omissions of certain classes from the requirements of the act, as shown in the exemption of certain classes from its requirements. It is contended that to except from the provisions of the act the physicians who were practising medicine in the state prior to the 1st day of January, 1898, who, at the time of the passage of the act, were practising medicine or surgery, and who could prove by affidavit that within one year of said date they had treated at least twelve persons in their professional capacity, is an unreasonable and arbitrary classification, resulting in the exclusion from the exception of physicians of equal merit and like qualifications with those who are within its terms.

It is too well settled to require discussion at this day that the police power of the states extends to the regulation of certain trades and callings, particularly those which closely concern the public health. There is perhaps no profession more properly open to such regulation than that which embraces the practitioners of medicine. Dealing, as its followers do, with the lives and health of the people, and requiring for its successful practice general education and technical skill, as well as good character, it is obviously one of those vocations where the power of the state may be exerted to see that only properly qualified persons shall undertake its responsible and difficult duties. To this end many of the states of the Union have enacted statutes which require the practitioner of medicine to submit to an examination by a competent board of physicians and surgeons, and...