Gibson v. Berryhill

After Alabama repealed a statute permitting corporations to employ optometrists, the state optometric association filed ethics charges with the Board of Optometry (composed of private-practice optometrists) against optometrists employed by Lee Optical, and the Board separately sued Lee in state court (naming the optometrists as aiding-and-abetting defendants), winning an injunction against Lee's corporate practice of optometry. When the Board then reactivated its ethics proceedings against the same optometrists, they sued in federal court (plaintiffs) to enjoin the Board hearing (defendants), arguing the Board members' financial stake in reducing corporate competition made a fair, impartial hearing impossible; the district court agreed.