Court clashes over physician-assisted suicide

Regulating addictive drugs
Roberts, 50, was presiding over his first major oral argument and thrust himself in the middle of the debate. Over and over he raised concerns that states could undermine federal regulation of addictive drugs. Before Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Atkinson could finish his first sentence, Roberts interrupted with the first of many questions.

“Doesn’t that undermine and make enforcement impossible?” he asked Atkinson. He posed just two questions of the Bush administration lawyer.

At one point, a flustered Atkinson said, “I’m starting to be backed into a corner.”

“I was wondering if the new chief would hold back and wouldn’t ruffle other people’s feathers. It appears clear he’s not waiting for anything or anyone,” said Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University and a former Supreme Court clerk.

The two justices who seemed most conflicted were Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer. Breyer’s wife counsels young cancer patients. Besides Ginsburg, the justices who have had cancer are O’Connor and John Paul Stevens.

“It’s a tough case,” Kennedy told the Bush administration’s lawyer, and later he asked about the “serious consequences” of curbing federal government authority in regulating drugs.

Solicitor General Paul Clement said Congress was concerned about drug overdoses and suicides.

Thomas vote unknown
Justice Clarence Thomas, as is his usual practice, asked no questions. He could be sympathetic to Oregon. He was one of three justices who said in a summer decision that the federal government should not interfere with state medical marijuana laws. The other two were O’Connor and Rehnquist.

If O’Connor is the deciding vote in the case, the court would probably delay the decision and schedule a new argument session after the arrival of the new justice. On Monday Bush named White House lawyer Harriet Miers to replace O’Connor.

Dozens of spectators gathered outside the court, waving signs supporting and opposing the Oregon law. “My Life, My Death, My Choice,” read one sign. “Oregon Law Protects Doctors, Not Patients,” said another.

Oregon is the only state with an assisted suicide law, but other states may pass their own if the court rules in the state’s favor.

The case is Gonzales v. Oregon, 04-623.

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