When the Supreme Court Sided with Chiropractors: How the AMA Lost Its 30-Year War on Natural Health
Why did the AMA try to eliminate chiropractic — and how did chiropractors fight back?
The natural health revolution began long before today’s holistic movement. Early chiropractors faced legal attacks, the AMA labelled them “unscientific,” and for decades doctors were forbidden to associate with them. In the landmark Supreme Court case Wilk v. American Medical Association, the AMA was found to have conspired “to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession.” Its boycott policies were permanently enjoined. Today, chiropractic stands as a vital alternative to the drug-based allopathic model.
When you peel back the layers, you’ll find something startling: the health system many accept as the only “real” medicine was, in fact, shaped by power, exclusion and legal force. The American Medical Association (AMA) didn’t simply ignore chiropractic — it worked for years to crush it.
In 1966 the AMA formally declared chiropractic an “unscientific cult.” Wikipedia+2chiropractic.org+2 Prior to that, the AMA’s Principle 3 of its ethical code stated a physician should not associate with practitioners who violate the scientific model. Justia In effect: any MD who referred to a chiropractor faced professional risk. The AMA’s strategy was clear — isolate, discourage referrals, block hospital access, and starve chiropractic of institutional legitimacy.
Jailed for Alignment: Early Chiropractors Took the Heat
The founders of chiropractic were not welcomed with open arms — they were in courtrooms. Daniel David Palmer, the founder of chiropractic, was convicted and jailed for practicing medicine without a license. Wikipedia+1 Between 1895 and the 1920s thousands of chiropractors faced jail time, fines or legal battles. PMC+2archives.lacrosselibrary.org+2
One example: thousands of prosecutions were recorded for practicing medicine without a license in the first decades of chiropractic’s existence. Wikipedia These were not minor skirmishes — they were systemic attempts to shut down a drug-free system of care.
Osteopathy’s Parallel Path: From Drug-free to Mainstream
While chiropractic marched one route, the field of osteopathy followed another. Osteopathic medicine began in 1874 as a drug-free, manipulative model by Andrew Taylor Still. mainedo.org+1 Over the 20th century, osteopathic physicians (DOs) gradually adopted full prescription rights, surgery and the same licensing as MDs. Wikipedia+1 The shift wasn’t just clinical—it was institutional. The drug-based model became the default.
Chiropractic, by contrast, remained outside the allopathic prescription system — which is exactly what made it a target.
The Legal Turning Point: Wilk v. AMA
Here’s where things change, in 1976, a group of chiropractors led by Chester Wilk sued the AMA under the Sherman Antitrust Act. chiropractic.org+1 By 1987, U.S. District Judge Susan Getzendanner found the AMA guilty of conspiring “to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession.” Justia+1 In 1990 the Seventh Circuit upheld that ruling. Wikipedia The result? The AMA was permanently enjoined from restricting its members from associating with chiropractors. Chiro. This decision was upheld by the United States Supreme Court.
Why This Matters
It gave chiropractic full legal legitimacy in referral and association.
It cracked open doors for collaboration between MDs and DCs.
It marked a symbolic shift in the health-care paradigm: you didn’t have to prescribe drugs to be a “real doctor.”
The Rockefeller Era: Philanthropy, Petroleum, and the Medical Makeover
If you follow the money trail, you find a familiar name: Rockefeller.
By the early 1900s, John D. Rockefeller’s fortune had made him one of the most powerful men on earth—and his foundations began reshaping public institutions, including medicine.
After the Flexner Report of 1910, the Rockefeller Foundation and its General Education Board poured millions into universities that adopted the new “scientific medicine” model. Their grants required strict laboratory standards—bacteriology, chemistry, and pharmacology—which rapidly became the definition of “modern medicine.” (Rockefeller Archive Center)
At the time, pharmacology was turning toward synthetic compounds—many refined from coal-tar and petroleum by-products. It was efficient, patentable, and profitable. Schools teaching herbalism or natural therapeutics could not meet the new research criteria and quietly disappeared. Homeopathic and chiropractic colleges were excluded from funding entirely.
Was it a coordinated plot? Not by the legal record. But the result was unmistakable: a national medical system tied to industrial chemistry and patentable petroleum-based drugs—leaving little room for herbalists, naturopaths, or chiropractors who believed the body could heal without synthetic intervention.
The Drug-Based Medical Model: Why It Dominated
Why did the allopathic model gain such dominance? There were multiple forces: industrialization, university standardization, and the rise of patentable petroleum-based pharmaceuticals. The historical record shows that medical schools consolidated curricula, fossilized around synthetic drugs and surgery, and excluded alternative paradigms. PMC+1
From an outside looking in, it can historically appear that medical institutions were “bought out,” and the effect was clear: drug-based medicine became the default licensed model—and any alternative was pushed to the margins. Chiropractors remained outside the prescription loop—and that was part of their potency, and part of why they were attacked.
The Public Shift: Natural Health Rising
Today the tides are turning. People are questioning the idea that “a doctor equals a prescription.” They are looking for innate natural healing rather than simply suppressing symptoms. That places chiropractic—structure, nervous system, function—squarely in the spotlight.
The legal win in Wilk doesn’t mean the battle is over—but it removed one of the biggest unseen barriers. Now, the natural, drug-free model is no longer fringe; it is part of the shifting narrative in healthcare.
“The Next Front: Will Chiropractors Be Prescribers?”
Even now, the story of chiropractic independence is far from over. As you read this, a new battleground is forming — and it’s not in the 1900s anymore. It’s in states like Montana, where the scope of chiropractic practice is being debated with startling implications.
According to Matthew McCoy’s analysis in The Chiropractic Chronicle, there was a bill in Montana — HB 500 — that sought to grant chiropractors the right to prescribe certain drugs. McCoy writes:
“The ACA is pushing to tie Medicare coverage to state scope — meaning if Montana allows chiropractors to prescribe drugs, it could lead to Medicare changes.” drmatthewmccoy.substack.com
McCoy’s commentary continues:
“Chiropractors are not trained to prescribe medications, and our students are in no way prepared to be prescribers of medication.” drmatthewmccoy.substack.com
In one article, he details how the Montana Board of Chiropractic supported expanding scope to include Schedule IV drugs — even though one board member admitted to Googling “Schedule IV” without knowing what it covered after including it in the newly expanded scope. Apple Podcasts
What’s at stake isn’t simply a regulatory tweak — it’s a transformation of chiropractic’s core identity. If chiropractors begin to prescribe medications, the line between drug-based allopathic medicine and the drug-free structural/neurological model of chiropractic blurs.
In Montana, the defeat of HB 500 by just one vote shows how heated the issue has become. drmatthewmccoy.substack.com McCoy argues this push is part of a broader agenda: by changing the definition of what a chiropractor can or should do, the natural, structural-based model might be subsumed into the pharmaceutical/medical industrial complex.
Final Word
Let’s be clear: When the AMA tried to isolate chiropractic, it wasn’t simply “a turf war.” It was a fight over how we define healing. Chiropractors resisted jail time. They stood outside the licence paradigm. They held fast to the belief that you don’t need drugs to be a doctor. And in 1990, the supreme court said, “Yes — you may practice, and you’re not to be excluded from association.”
The medical monopoly lost. The choice of natural, holistic health won.
🔗 Further Reading
Law.justia.com – Wilk v. American Medical Association, 671 F. Supp. 1465 (N.D. Ill. 1987)
PMC – “The Five Eras of Chiropractic & the Future of the Profession”
Maine DO Association – History of Osteopathic Medicine in the U.S.
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