Brief Fact Summary. A physician in the State of Wisconsin, Withrow (Appellee), challenged the Wisconsin statutes which authorized the State’s Examining Board (Board) to investigate physicians and temporarily suspend their license.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Vesting the authority to investigate and adjudicate in the same agency does not violate due process.
Issue. Did the authority given to Appellants to investigate physicians, present charges, rule on those charges and present punishment (to the extent of reprimanding or temporarily suspending) violate Appellee’s due process rights?
Held. No. Reversed and remanded. The Board stayed within the accepted bounds of due process. Having investigated, it issued findings and conclusions asserting the commission of certain acts and ultimately concluding there was probable cause to believe the Appellee had violated the statutes. The risk of bias and prejudgment was not intolerably high. The initial determination of probably cause and the ultimate adjudication have different purposes; and the fact that same agency makes them in tandem and they relate to the same issues does not result in a procedural due process violation. Dissent. None. Concurrence. None.
The risk of bias or prejudgment in this sequence of functions has not been considered to be intolerably high or to raise a sufficiently great possibility that the adjudicators would be so psychologically wedded to their complaints that they would consciously or unconsciously avoid the appearance of having erred or changed position.
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