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Gonzales v. Oregon (docket #:04-623) (2006), was a United States Supreme Court case which ruled that the United States Attorney General could not enforce the Controlled Substances Act against physicians prescribing drugs for the assisted suicide of the terminally ill as permitted by an Oregon law. It was the first case heard under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr..

Background of the case

In 1994, voters in the State of Oregon approved Oregon Ballot Measure 16 by a margin of 31,962 votes and retained this measure by 220,445 votes in a 1997 special election attempt to repeal the law. The law permits physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a patient agreed by two doctors to be within six months of dying from an incurable condition. As of 2004, 208 individuals had ended their lives under the law.

On November 9, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an Interpretive Rule that assisted-physician suicide was not a legitimate medical purpose, and that any physician administering federally controlled drugs for that purpose would be in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. The State of Oregon, joined by a physician, a pharmacist, and some terminally ill patients, all from Oregon, filed a challenge to the Attorney General's rule in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The court ruled for Oregon and issued a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Interpretive Rule. This was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Court's decision

In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit's ruling. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas filed dissents. The majority opinion did not dispute the power of the federal government to regulate drugs, but disagreed that the statute in place empowered the U.S. Attorney General to over-rule state laws determining what constituted the appropriate use of medications that were not themselves prohibited.

Scalia's dissent

Justice Scalia, in a dissent joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas, argued for the power of the Attorney General to interpret the law so as to over-ride the will of the states or the people therein. He wrote that "f the term 'legitimate medical purpose' has any meaning, it surely excludes the prescription of drugs to produce death".

Notes

• Full text of the Supreme Court's decision
• The case was initially filed as Oregon v. Ashcroft, with John Ashcroft, then Attorney General, as a nominal defendant by virtue of his status as the head of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Alberto Gonzales was substituted for Ashcroft following his appointment of Alberto Gonzales to that position, Gonzales was substituted., for the officeholder responsible for the prosecution at the time the case was filed. Ashcroft himself had brought the case on the day that his retirement was announced.
• Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was in the majority, though she had announced her retirement on July 1, 2005, pending confirmation of a successor. She remained on the Court when oral argument was heard and when the case was considered, though her vote would not have counted if her successor was seated before the Court formally announced its decision. Samuel Alito was still pending confirmation by the Senate to replace O'Connor when the ruling was handed down.

External links

• Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law, Washington Post, January 17, 2006.
• Legal analysis of the case
• Transcript of oral arguments

• Current events
• United States Supreme Court cases
• ACLU cases
• 2006 in law