Do No Harm v. Edwards

The Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners regulates, licenses, and investigates doctors to ensure they meet the high standards of the profession. Physicians serving on the Board are required to have been licensed for at least five years and have resided in Louisiana for no less than six months. There is also one consumer member that sits on the board. Outside of the bona fide qualifications that the statute mandates for both Board positions, in appointing members to the Board, the Governor must consider a factor entirely outside the control of the potential Board members—their race.

Such blatant racial discrimination against individuals who could sit on Louisiana’s Board of Medical Examiners serves no legitimate government purpose. It is demeaning and unconstitutional.

Do No Harm has members who are Louisiana physicians as well as members who would qualify for appointment to the consumer slot but for their race. The lawsuit, filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of Do No Harm, alleges that the racial mandate is unconstitutional in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Do No Harm seeks a permanent prohibitory injunction preventing Governor Edwards from enforcing or attempting to enforce the racial mandate.