Let's hope this is the end of it...

Supreme Court upholds Oregon's Death With Dignity Act.  In a nutshell:

 

"Ashcroft's directive declared that assisting suicide was not a legitimate medical purpose under the Controlled Substances Act and that prescribing federally controlled drugs for that purpose was against the federal law.

[Kennedy] said the administration maintained that the law delegated to a single officer in the executive branch "the power to effect a radical shift of authority from the states to the federal government to define general standards of medical practice in every locality."

Kennedy concluded in the 28-page opinion that the text of the federal law shows that "Congress did not have this far-reaching intent to alter the federal-state balance."

The scary thing is - when in 1970 Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act they did not have that intent, however Congress in 2006 most certainly would.  How soon do you think it will be before we see a new bill introduced in the halls of Congress trying to federalize medical practice standards?  Would solve so many tricky problems... Assisted Suicide, abortion providers, pharmacist ethics, pulling the plug ala Terry Shivo...

Blue Oregon illustrates just how much you can trust a Supreme Court nominee who is willing to say anything to get confirmed: To whit: Roverts assured Sen. Wyden before his confirmation that he would "be careful not to strip states of powers they traditionally have held" but then lookie here! He voted today with Scalia and Thomas to do precisely that.