Today in Supreme Court History: March 28, 1955

3/28/1955: Williamson v. Lee Optical decided.

Comments

[apedad]

"An Oklahoma law prohibited persons who were not licensed optometrists or ophthalmologists to fit lenses for eyeglasses. Non-licensed individuals were also prohibited from duplicating optical instruments without written prescriptions from licensed ophthalmologists. The Lee Optical Company challenged the law.

In a unanimous decision authored by William Orville Douglas, the Court held that while the law may have been 'needless' and 'wasteful,' it was the duty of the legislature, not the courts, 'to balance the advantages and disadvantages of the new requirement.' That is, Courts should not be able to invalidate state economic regulations on the grounds that they disagree with the theories supporting them. Even if the state law imposes burdens or waste, the legislature has the sole authority over weighing its benefits against its costs. In sum, the opticians could not prove that the law had no rational relationship to legitimate state objectives."

(Oyez)

Gotta love unanimous decisions!

[Cal Cetín]

"The day is gone when this Court uses the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down state laws, regulatory of business and industrial conditions because they may be unwise, improvident, or out of harmony with a particular school of thought."

Note the careful wording...the day *isn't* gone when the court uses the Due Process Clause to get involved in social questions if they can be spun as non-business-related.

[F.D. Wolf]

The federal courts have no business applying the Due Process Clause to state regulations of medical practices.

Except in one case, of course.

I guess there is no constitutional right to see, so the states may burden the individual's ability to do so.

[Frank Drackman]

Learned to do Eyeglass Prescriptions(AKA "Refractions") in my Navy Flight Surgeon Training. Not really that difficult, had a little checklist (Lots of "#1?, or #2?, #2, or #3?)
Theory was we were the "Ophthalmologist(try spelling that 3 times fast) of the Aircraft Carrier" and had to be able to order glasses if a deployment got extended.
Fortunately my Deployments were to Aviano AFB Italy, (which had an AF Optometrist) and plenty of Eye-talian Ophthalmogists(see, spelled it wrong) for the rare Detached Retina...
Still, best Rx's I ever got were the ones I did on myself (love doing things on myself)
Probably a Youtube Video that shows you how to do it on your phone...
But hey, throw a bone to the Optometrists, Jug Dish needs to put his kids in Private School!!!