Simkins v cone

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Bradfield v. Roberts paved the way for what is now known as the Hill-Burton Cases. Although it has its shortcomings, it appears to have put an end to church-state litigation for quite a few eras, when it comes to the hospital field. It was in 1946, that Congress implemented an ambitious program to be used for building hospitals, named the Hill-Burton Act. The Hill- Burton Act made federal construction funds accessible, through the states, to public, as well as, private hospitals. The mixing of federal funds to private hospitals gave way to an abundance of lawsuits that challenged the practices of private hospitals on the ground that receiving of federal funds had made them “public” institutions and that they must now respect the standards of due process and non-discrimination as would all other public entities have to.
One of the initial lawsuits was Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, a private hospital, in which African-American physicians took legal action against under the 1871 Civil Rights Act, for depriving him of “rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the constitution and laws,” by refusing to grant him staff privileges at what was at that time an all-white institution.
To prove there is a case under Section 1983, it would have to be proven that the claim of denial of constitutional rights was caused by action “under color of state law.” It was concluded by the Fourth Circuit that Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital had, by pursuing and obtaining Hill-Burton funds, as part of a state proposal to produce and sustain a racially segregated “separate but equal” dual hospital system, performed in the capacity of color of state law, and as a result it was bound to the requiremen...

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...love of one’s neighbor according to measure of man’s natural self- affirmation (Tillich, 1954, p. 4).
I am in full agreement with the case law. Once Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital sought after and received government funding. They are to be held to the same standards as any other business or organization, public or private. It is fair to say that Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital benefited from grants comprised of tax funds. These tax funds were paid by all citizens, and the hospital used the facilities built with these funds to impose its own doctrines upon patients and physicians who did not share them.

Works Cited

Showalter, J. S. (2012). The Law of Healthcare Administration (6th ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2010).
Tillich, P. (1954). Love, Power, and Justice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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