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Gonzales v. Oregon, (docket #:04-623) (2006), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld an Oregon law which permits physician-assisted suicide for persons agreed to be terminally ill. It was the first case to be heard under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts.

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 by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit's ruling and rebuked the Attorney General for assuming that the Controlled Substances Act gave him "the authority and the expertise" to challenge it.

Scalia's dissent

Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas. Scalia, arguing for the power of the federal government to over-ride the will of the states or the people therein, wrote that "f the term 'legitimate medical purpose' has any meaning, it surely excludes the prescription of drugs to produce death".

Trivia

Retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was on the Court for arguments in this case, and her vote would not have counted if a successor was confirmed before the Court rendered a decision. However, the decision was rendered while the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito, who has been nominated to replace O'Connor, were ongoing. This had no effect on the outcome, as the majority would still have had five votes without O'Connor.

The case is named Gonzales v. Oregon rather than Ashcroft v. Oregon because the Court traditionally substitutes the current officeholder (in this case, Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales), 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.

External links

• Full text of the Supreme Court's decision
• Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law, Washington Post, January 17, 2006.
• Legal analysis of the case

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