Case Name: Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, Inc.
Citation: 348 U.S. 483 (1955)
Facts: An Oklahoma law made it unlawful for any person who is not a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist to fit lenses for someone or replace lenses unless they received a written prescription from an Oklahoma licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist. The goal of this law was to forbid opticians from fitting or duplicating lenses without a prescription.
Procedural Posture: The District Court held the Oklahoma law unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. The District Court did concede that the state has police power to regulate the examination of the eyes but did not agree that a state could require a prescription just “to take old lenses and place them in new frames and then fit the completed spectacles to the face of the eyeglass wearer.” It held that this requirement was not “reasonably and rationally related to the health and welfare of the people.”
Holding: The law was upheld. “The day is gone when this Court uses the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to strike down state laws.”
Reasoning: This law may be a needless requirement; however, it is for the legislature, not the courts, to balance the advantages and disadvantages of these requirements. “The law need not be in every respect logically consistent with its aims to be constitutional. It is enough that there is an evil at hand for correction,” and [that the legislation was a] rational way to correct it.”
Quoting Chief Justice Waite in Munn v. State of Illinois, “For protection against abuses by legislature the people must resort to the polls, not to the courts.”