Government regulatory boards are commonplace for countless professions throughout the country. Boards governing healthcare professions are among the most prevalent, tasked with protecting citizens’ health and safety in all states and several U.S. territories.
Tennessee medical practitioners fall under the purview of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, while the state’s Board of Chiropractic Examiners oversees chiropractors.
Established in 1901, the 12-member medical board must include nine licensed physicians and three nonphysicians. The chiropractic board, created in 1923, has seven members—five chiropractor physicians, one x-ray technician or therapy assistant, and one member of the public.
Another requirement of both boards, however, has nothing to do with medicine or chiropractic care, and everything to do with race. Three separate state laws dating back more than 30 years—one for each board and a third for all executive appointments—force the governor to consider race when deciding who can serve on these boards.
Specifically, the governor must appoint at least one African American to the medical board, and one racial minority to the chiropractic board. One chiropractor and two physician seats opened up in May 2024, and now Tennessee’s governor must fill the vacancies with at least one black physician and a chiropractor who is a racial minority.
Do No Harm is a diverse nonprofit organization of over 6,000 physicians, healthcare professionals, medical students, patients, and policymakers committed to ensuring equality in healthcare. It has several members who, because of the racial quota laws, are barred from consideration for their respective boards in Tennessee.
It’s wrong for the government to make assumptions about people’s experiences and qualifications based on arbitrary and offensive assumptions about race. And it’s unconstitutional.
No government official should use an individual’s race or ethnicity to determine who gets the opportunity to serve the public. Treating people differently on the basis of race violates the very notion of equality before the law. People should be treated as individuals, not as members of a group they did not choose.
Represented by PLF at no charge, Do No Harm is fighting back. Its federal lawsuit challenges Tennessee’s racial quotas for chiropractor and medical board membership as violating the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee. Victory would ensure that all candidates can compete equally for any state advisory board, regardless of race.
The situation with Tennessee’s chiropractor and medical examiner boards aren’t isolated occurrences. The state has a history of directing its governor and appointing authorities to make race-based appointments when filling vacancies on public boards and commissions. In fact, PLF is currently challenging racial quotas for the state Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners.
Nor is Tennessee the only state that uses immutable characteristics to limit opportunities for individuals to serve their state and local communities. A report released by PLF found mandated race- and sex-based discrimination on the books in 25 states. Without action, the problem is likely to worsen. PLF is working to defeat race and sex board quotas everywhere the unconstitutional practice is allowed.
What’s At Stake?
- Tennessee cannot deny individuals the opportunity to serve on public boards due to their race. Racial quotas are unjust, unconstitutional, and un-American.
- Limiting opportunities—like public board membership—based on race violates the very notion of equality before the law. People should be treated as individuals, not as members of a group they did not choose.
