In 1906, Harvey Washington Wiley was the head of the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Chemistry when Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act.

[1] In 1903, Coca-Cola had already stopped using spent coca leaves (which only carried trace amounts of cocaine) and had dropped the claim that it cured headaches.

[citation needed] The government made a first appeal in 1913 to the Sixth Circuit Court in Cincinnati, but the ruling was reaffirmed.

[1] Worried that this ruling would debilitate the Pure Food and Drug Act, it appealed again in 1916 to the Supreme Court.

[1] Coca-Cola then voluntarily reduced the amount of caffeine in its product, and offered to pay all legal costs to settle and avoid further litigation.