By Samuel López | USA Herald

A federal judge has dismissed a closely watched antitrust lawsuit accusing the American Veterinary Medical Association of using its accreditation authority to restrict the supply of veterinarians, suppress competition and contribute to rising animal-care costs.

U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan ruled Tuesday that Lincoln Memorial University had not established a sufficiently concrete and immediate injury to keep its case alive in federal court.

The Tennessee university sued the AVMA in 2025 after its veterinary program was placed on probationary accreditation. Lincoln Memorial alleged that the association imposed costly and unreasonable research requirements unrelated to producing competent, practice-ready veterinarians.

According to the lawsuit, those standards threatened the university’s accreditation, damaged its reputation and obstructed plans to expand veterinary education. The school sought a court order preventing the AVMA from enforcing the challenged requirements.

But Varlan concluded that the dispute had reached the courthouse too soon.

The AVMA had not issued a final decision revoking Lincoln Memorial’s accreditation, and the university’s predictions about what might happen remained uncertain. The judge found that the feared loss of accreditation “may never come true,” making the alleged future harm too speculative to support the lawsuit at this stage.

That distinction is legally significant. The dismissal does not amount to a judicial finding that the AVMA’s accreditation system is lawful, competitive or immune from antitrust scrutiny. Instead, the court determined that Lincoln Memorial had not demonstrated the kind of present or imminent injury required to proceed.

The AVMA represents more than 100,000 veterinarians. Its Council on Education establishes the standards veterinary schools must satisfy to obtain and retain accreditation, giving the organization substantial influence over which institutions may train future veterinarians.

Lincoln Memorial argued that this power created an inherent conflict because the association represents existing veterinary professionals while also influencing how many new veterinarians may enter the market.

The dispute attracted the attention of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, which filed a statement of interest in December 2025.

Although the department did not endorse Lincoln Memorial’s factual allegations, it warned that professional accreditation organizations remain subject to federal antitrust law. The government emphasized that accrediting bodies cannot use unnecessarily restrictive standards to block market entry, reduce competition or inflate the cost of professional services.

The Justice Department also noted that the United States had only about 34 accredited veterinary colleges despite population growth and increasing demand for affordable veterinary care.

The AVMA maintained that the lawsuit was premature because Lincoln Memorial’s accreditation remained in place and no final adverse determination had been issued. Varlan agreed that the university’s alleged future injuries were not yet sufficiently developed for judicial review.

The ruling ends the present case, but the larger legal battle over professional self-regulation remains unsettled. If Lincoln Memorial later loses its accreditation or suffers a concrete injury traceable to the challenged standards, a renewed legal challenge could present a markedly different controversy.

The case is Lincoln Memorial University v. American Veterinary Medical Association, No. 3:25-CV-00282-TAV-CRW, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

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