Dent v. West Virginia

Syllabus

<p>The statute of West Virginia (§§ 9 and 15, chapter 93, 1882) which requires every practitioner of- medicine in the State to. obtain a certificate from the State Board of Health that he is a graduate of a reputable medi-._ cal college in the school of medicine to which he- belongs; or that he has. practised medicine in the State continuously for ten years prior to March 8, 1881; of that he has been found upon examination to be qualified to practise medicine in all its departments, and which subjects a person practising without such certificate to prosecution and punishment for a misdemeanor, does not, when enforced against a person who had been.a practising physician in the State for a period of five years before 1881, without a diploma of a reputable medical college in the school of medicine to which he belonged, deprive him of his. estate or interest in the profession without due process of law.</p> <p>The State, in the exercise of its power to prpvide for the general welfare of - its people, may exact from parties before they can practise medicine a degree of shill and learning in that profession upon which the community employing their services may confidently rely; and, to ascertain whether they have such qualifications, require them to obtain a certificate or license from a Board or other authority competent to judge in that respect. If the qualifications required are appropriate to the profession, and attainable by reasonable study or application, their validity is not subject to objection because of their stringency or difficulty.</p> <p>Legislation is not open to the charge of depriving one of his rights without due process of law, if it be general in its operation upon the subjects to which it relates, and is enforceable in the usual modes established in the administration of government with respect to hindred matters; that is, by process or proceedings adapted to the nature of the case, and such is the legislation of West Virginia in question. Cummings