Oregon Ping
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Posted on 10/23/2005 3:45:57 PM PDT by RWR8189
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS THE authority to stop Oregon physicians from using prescription drugs to implement that state's unique program of physician-assisted suicide. But the administration's effort to use an ambiguous federal drug statute to undermine Oregon's assisted suicide law is a betrayal of conservative legal principles. Gonzales v. Oregon, argued before the Supreme Court earlier this month, may give an early signal about the commitment of the emerging Roberts Court to those principles. And the Court's decision could have unexpected implications for a range of other issues, including future policies about abortion.
Like the administration, I believe that the people of Oregon made a terrible mistake when they voted in two separate popular referenda to authorize Oregon doctors to help their patients commit suicide. Physicians are uniquely empowered by their technical knowledge and the nature of their work either to heal or to kill, and their patients know it. For millennia, the chief safeguard against abuse of this power has been the Hippocratic ethic, which forbids a doctor from seeking to hasten the death of any patient. That ethic was compromised when physicians began to violate a related Hippocratic prohibition of abortion, and it has continued to crumble in the face of pressures for doctors to make moral decisions (masquerading as medical decisions) about whose life is worth preserving. The Oregon law is a step along the path toward a world of legalized euthanasia in which seriously ill people will have good reasons to worry about what their doctors are up to.
Unlike the Bush administration, however, I believe the voters of Oregon are adults who are entitled to make their own decisions about this important policy question, even if they disagree with me. Among the signal achievements of the late Chief Justice Rehnquist was his long crusade to revive the constitutional principle of federalism. That principle demands that the people of each state be allowed to govern themselves as they see fit, so long as their decisions are not forbidden by the Constitution itself (as in certain decisions involving racial discrimination) or by federal statutes covering issues assigned by the Constitution to the jurisdiction of Congress (such as the regulation of foreign and interstate commerce).
The constitutional principle of federalism suggests that Oregon's assisted suicide law should be immune from congressional interference. Virtually all of the people affected by Oregon's law will be Oregonians, and there is nothing in Oregon's decision that will interfere with other states' ability to choose a different policy in regulating their own physicians. In any event, Congress has not clearly authorized the Bush administration to interfere with Oregon's decision. The federal statute generally requires that doctors with state licenses to prescribe drugs be given a federal license as well. Federal authorities do have a vaguely worded authorization to yank the licenses of doctors who behave irresponsibly, which was aimed at allowing federal agents to quickly shut down doctors who set up shop as drug dealers. The Bush administration is using this provision to claim a power to override any state law involving prescription drugs if the attorney general disagrees with that state's chosen policy about the proper use of such drugs.
The drug statute can easily be interpreted to leave policy decisions about medical practice to the states. The statute does not clearly grant the authority the administration is claiming, and it might be unconstitutional if it did. In any event, there was absolutely no necessity for the administration to claim this power (which reversed the Justice Department's previous position). This is a legally gratuitous departure from the principle that the states are free to manage their own internal affairs unless a valid federal law clearly constrains their discretion.
There may be further implications. If the Roberts Court eventually overrules Roe v. Wade, as I believe it should, the abortion issue will return to the democratic processes of each state, which is where it lay before the Supreme Court usurped state authority. We can be sure that interest groups on both sides of that issue--none of which is likely to have enough political support to obtain a clearly worded federal statute, let alone a constitutional amendment--will seek to get future administrations to attack state laws they disagree with, using maneuvers like the one the Bush administration has adopted here.
Assisted suicide is a serious issue. So is abortion. Less visibly, but no less important, this case involves the obligation of judges to be faithful to the constitutional principle of federalism. That principle should be especially significant in guiding the resolution of controversial issues, but the principle seldom has a strong political constituency. For that reason, whatever our views on assisted suicide and abortion, we should all hope that in this case the new chief justice will be true to Rehnquist's spirit rather than to the will of the president who appointed him.
Nelson Lund teaches at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia.
So is the Cumberland Road substantially different than the public works projects of the New Deal
Yep. the need for the federal government to create those pathways of commerce to unite our new republic was especially critical in the time of Washington and Jefferson.
So are you backing off the "military road" falsehood?
I suspect that there has never been a major road construction project without elements of corruption and abuse.
Well, OK.
I'll put you down for favoring laws that deal with morality issues. That you believe laws should be based on morality, on what's right and wrong, and that it goes beyond what's merely constitutional.
How about that? Is that your position?
Praise Ayn from whom all blessing flow...
The 14th Amendment was ratified before 1950, tpaine.
I am certainly going to hold him to it in future posts.
False dichotomy.
The Constitution, the Congress, the courts and the changing nature of commerce all play rolls in determining the extent to which federal powers are exercised in that arena.
Oregon Ping
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
Lack of logical consistency is one of the things that always gives his real identity away. That and the bizarre use of words like "prohibitionary" and "communtarian".
;-)
You were banned?
That's a good point, where does the FDA (FAA, FCC, NEA, ATF, ect) get constitutional justification??
I think Lund is correct here. Not that I LIKE living in a State ruled by the culture of death.
"Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. Seek Treatment, Vote Republican!"
Hmmmmm. I thought the law declaring some people "more equal than others" was written under the Constitution and found to be constitutional.
Are you drunk?
There wasn't much shipping of refrigerated meat in the 18th century. Or many pharmaceutical companies. Or commercial airliners. Or television stations. Or satellite networks.
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