ORGANIZATION SECTION

OPINION OF JUSTICE JAMES M. PROCTOR IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, JULY 26, 1939, ON THE DEMURRER TO THE INDICTMENT AGAINST THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATIO  NThe indictment charges a conspiracy to restrain trade in the District of Columbia in violation of section 3 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The defendants are American Medical Association, a national organization of physicians; two of its subordinate bodies, the Medical Society of the District of Columbia and Harris County Medical Society of Houston, Texas, also the Washington Academy of Surgery, not fully identified, and twenty-one individual doctors all members of the national body, some officers thereof, other members and officers of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. All defendants have demurred to the indictment. It is very long, and only abbreviated references will be made to such parts as are deemed necessary to this decision.