On Jan. 10, 1916, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Sherley Amendment to the Pure Food and Drugs Act was constitutional. The U.S. Congress enacted the Sherley Amendment in 1912 to overcome the 1910 ruling in U.S. v. Johnson.

The term “misbranded” and the phrase defining what amounts to misbranding in the Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906 are aimed at false statements as to identity the article, possibly including strength, quality and purity, dealt with in the act, and not at statements as to curative effect, and so held that a statement on the labels of bottles of medicine that the contents are effective as a cure for cancer, even if misleading, is not covered by the statute.

This amendment prohibited labeling medicines with false therapeutic claims intended to defraud the purchaser.