Gonzales v. Oregon

Gonzales v. Oregon was a landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 2006. In 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft tried to stop Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. This law allowed terminally ill people to get a prescription for a medication that they could take to kill themselves. (This is called "physician-assisted suicide.")

Ashcroft tried to stop doctors from prescribing medicines for physician-assisted suicide. He threatened to use a federal anti-drug law to punish them.

The state of Oregon went to court to fight Ashcroft. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled that Ashcroft did not have the power to stop doctors from prescribing legal drugs in a way that was legal in Oregon. This decision allowed physician-assisted suicide to continue in Oregon.