Washington – The first signs of a shift at the Supreme Court came Wednesday.
New Chief Justice John Roberts strongly hinted he would back the Bush administration in its bid to stop doctor-assisted suicide in Oregon.
His predecessor, William Rehn quist, a states’ rights champion who died a month ago of cancer, may have been more likely to go the other way.
Just four months ago Rehn quist voted to block federal agents from overriding state medical marijuana laws to arrest sick pot users.
The dispute over Oregon’s one-of-a-kind doctor-assisted suicide law raised similar issues to that case, in which Rehnquist was on the losing side.
The outcome of the Oregon case, argued at the court Wednesday, is hard to predict in part because of the uncertain status of retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She seemed ready to support Oregon’s law. Her replacement may be confirmed before the ruling comes down, possibly in months.
Under Rehnquist’s leadership, the court had sought to embolden states to set their own rules, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the Bush administration lawyer that “everyone on the court in that (1997) case seemed to assume that physician-assisted suicide was a matter for the state.”
The latest case is a turf battle of sorts, started by former Attorney General John Ashcroft, a favorite among the president’s conservative religious supporters.
Hastening someone’s death is an improper use of medication and violates federal drug laws, Ashcroft reasoned in 2001, an opposite conclusion from the one reached by Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration.
Oregon won a lawsuit in a lower court over its voter-approved law, which took effect in 1997 and has been used by 208 people.
Roberts, named chief justice by Bush not long after Rehn quist’s death, repeatedly raised concerns during the argument session that a single exception for Oregon would allow other states to create a patchwork of rules.
