Dr. Chester Wilk

Mr. George McAndrews

1976 — In October 1976 Chester A. Wilk, DC, and four co-plaintiffs brought suit in U.S. district court in Illinois against the American Medical Association (AMA) and 10 co-conspirators, for violating federal anti-trust laws.

The suit charged AMA et al. with attempting to restrain trade by their efforts to “contain and eliminate” the chiropractic profession. Engaged as legal counsel for the plaintiff chiropractors was attorney George McAndrews, son of a chiropractor and brother of Jerome F. McAndrews, DC, then an ICA officer and subsequently president of Palmer College of Chiropractic.

McAndrews led a 14-year legal struggle for justice for chiropractors, which went through two trials and many appeals. Support for this legal action came from the ICA and ACA, and through the fund-raising activities of the National Chiropractic Antitrust Committee.

The court battles revealed political medicine’s many attempts to squash its smaller competitor, including an “ethical” ban on professional collaboration between chiropractors and medical physicians, denial of hospital privileges, interference with the Council on Chiropractic Education’s quest for recognition from the U.S. Office of Education, preparation of a bogus report to Congress on the value of chiropractic services within Medicare and attempts to block passage of chiropractic legislation in various states.

The chiropractors were eventually victorious, but this was not at all certain as the case moved through the courts. Finally resolved in 1989, the AMA was required to print the courts findings in its Journal.