Oregon's "Death With Dignity" upheld

Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said that a federal drug law does not override the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people. New Chief Justice John Roberts backed the Bush administration, dissenting for the first time.

The administration improperly tried to use a drug law to punish Oregon doctors who prescribe lethal doses of prescription medicines, the court majority said.

"Congress did not have this far-reaching intent to alter the federal-state balance," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for himself, retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer.

If Alito had already replaced O'Conner this would have been a 5-4 vote. The SC vote would still allow the congress to pass a law that would outlaw the practice. That may be unlikely after the Terri Schiavo fiasco.

Update

Blue Oregon reminds us that Roberts told Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden that he would not vote to overturn the Oregon law. Like all neo-fascists he lied.