1974 — The Digest of Chiropractic Economics reported the passage of a chiropractic statute in the final American state to do so: Louisiana. After decades of persecution by political medicine in the Pelican State, involving hundreds of arrests and prosecutions, and an (ultimately unsuccessful) challenge to the Louisiana medical practice act that made its way to the federal courts, chiropractors nationwide were overwhelmingly pleased to learn that the Louisiana legislature had passed, and Governor Edwin Edwards had signed into law, a chiropractic practice act.

Despite this legislative success, two chiropractors, Drs. B.D. Mooring and E.J. Nosser of Caddo Parish, were jailed when they violated a state court injunction against practicing without a license. The pair had been arrested before the new law was passed, and like generations of chiropractors before them, had defied the court by returning to their practices to serve their patients despite the magistrate’s prohibition.

Judge Jack Fant ordered them to be placed behind bars. However, as though to reenact the struggle of decades of chiropractors before them, the switchboard of the sheriff’s office was inundated with telephone calls from patients distressed by their doctors’ incarceration. The judge relented, and Drs. Mooring and Nosser were released.

Shown here with Louisiana Governor Edwin W. Edwards (center, at podium), just prior to his signing the chiropractic bill into law, are a few of the many who worked so hard to get this long-overdue law. At the far left is Dr. Edward A. Mernin, Vice President of the Chiropractic Association of Louisiana; next is Dr. John E. Flynn, President of the C.A.L.; then Rep. J. Richard Breaux, one of the primary movers in the House to enact this bill.