Ex Parte Bohannon
Opinion
lead Opinion
Cooper, J.
Petitioner desires to have a writ of habeas corpus to obtain Ms release from imprisonment under a judgment rendered in a court of competent jurisdiction, convicting Mm of unlawfully practicing medicine without having a license or a valid unrevoked certificate authorizing him to practice medicine, contrary to the provisions of the law in such case made and provided.
The act under which the petitioner was convicted is entitled “An Act for the regulation of the Practice of Medicine and Surgery, Osteopathy, or other system or means of treating the sick or afflicted in the State of California; for the appointment of a Board of Medical Examiners in the matter of said regulation.” (Stats. 1907, p. 252; General Laws, [1910, p. 609], Act 2163.) The act concludes with the following exception or proviso: “Provided that nothing herein shall be held to apply or to regulate any kind of treatment by prayer.”
It is claimed that the latter exemption makes the whole act unconstitutional and void, and that it gives to a certain class of persons, to wit, those who treat physical ills by prayer, privileges and immunities which “under like conditions are not granted to all citizens. ’ ’