The Supreme Court disappointed the Bush Administration yesterday when it upheld an Oregon right-to-die law:
The Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s law on physician-assisted suicide yesterday, ruling that the Justice Department may not punish doctors who help terminally ill patients end their lives.
By a vote of 6 to 3, the court ruled that Attorney General John D. Ashcroft exceeded his legal authority in 2001 when he threatened to prohibit doctors from prescribing federally controlled drugs if they authorized lethal doses of the medications under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act.
The ruling struck down one of the administration’s signature policies regarding what President Bush calls the “culture of life” and lifts the last legal cloud over the state’s law, which is unique in the nation. It also frees other states to follow in Oregon’s footsteps, unless Congress acts to the contrary.
If Administration officials seem oddly unconcerned about the negative ruling, perhaps they intend to appeal the case to President Bush himself, whose very word is the only law.
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