Meffert v. State Board of Medical Registration & Examination

Citations

• 66 Kan. 710
• 72 P. 247
• 1903 Kan. LEXIS 123

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Physicians and Surgeons — State Board Not a Judicial Tribunal — Findings Conclusive. The state, in the exercise of its police power in the interest of the health, good government, general welfare and morals of the people, may prescribe the qualifications of persons desiring to practice medicine, and may create a board whose duty it shall be to hear and determine any complaint made against any person holding a physician’s license, and revoke such license for any cause provided for in the statute. Such board, while so acting, is not a judicial tribunal and is not governed by the technical rules applicable to law courts. In the absence of fraud, corruption, or oppression, the findings of the board are conclusive upon this court.</p> <p>2. - Cancelation Not a Punishment — Law Not Fx Post Facto. Where the statute prescribes the qualifications of a physician, and proscribes the grossly immoral, and authorizes the cancelation of any certificate issued to such persons, the application of this law to one whose habits were grossly immoral before the passage of the law is not in the nature of a punishment; and, therefore, the statute is not ex post faoto, but has in view only the qualifications of the physician and the protection of public morals.</p> <p>3. -Law NotViolaiive of Federal Constitution. Theclause in the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of .law,” is not a limitation upon the police power of the state to pass and enforce such laws as in its judgment will inure to the health, morals and general welfare of its people.</p>