Sheldon Schwartz v. Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine

“The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause incorporates and renders applicable to the States Bill of Rights protections “fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty,” or “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, 767 (alterations omitted).” Timbs v. Indiana, 586 U.S. (2019) For over one hundred years this Court has held that the right of a licensed professional to practice his chosen profession is a liberty right that could be rea­ sonably regulated but not destroyed, and is entitled to protection in equity in the absence of an adequate remedy at law. Truax v. Raich, 239 U.S. 33 (1915) The Massachusetts supreme court has declared that any action by the state’s medical licensing board, which is statutorily exempt from any supervision by the Governor and comprises of five physicians and two laypersons, automatically meets rational basis review and the substantial evidence standard because the legislature had a rational basis to enact the board’s enabling statute. The Questions Presented Are: 1. Is the taking of a physician’s medical license, a liberty right protected by the common law, by a private board through a vast delegation claim unsup­ ported by statute or regulation, and with no statutory replacement for common law protections, a violation of the Bill of Rights protections fundamental to our Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty?