1966 — Paul Smallie, DC’s “World-Wide Report” column in the Digest of Chiropractic Economics noted that chiropractors had been defeated in their federal lawsuit to overturn that portion of Louisiana’s medical statute that prohibited the practice of chiropractic by anyone not licensed by the medical board.

Louisiana chiropractors, he observed, were “again on trial for ‘practice of medicine.’” Led by attorney J. Minos Simon, the legal case was named for its chief plaintiff, Jerry England, DC.

The case had begun in the state courts in the late 1950s, but later made its way to the federal judiciary and brought some dramatic moments to the Pelican State. Serving as expert witnesses in the federal suit were presidents Joseph Janse, DC, ND of the National College of Chiropractic (NCC) and William D. Harper, MA, DC, of Texas Chiropractic College. The two men were “raked over the coals” by counsel for the medical establishment, who hammered away at the lack of federal recognition for any chiropractic college.

Janse reportedly left the state determined to establish accreditation for NCC “or leave the profession.” The NCC achieved this goal a few years later (in 1971), when it was received regional accreditation from the New York State board of regents. The struggle for legal recognition in Louisiana continued until 1974, when Governor Edwin Edwards signed the first chiropractic statute into law.