Gonzales v. Oregon

Gonzales v. Oregon
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 5, 2005 Decided January 17, 2006
Full case name	Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, et al., v. Oregon, et al.[a]
Docket no.	04-623
Citations	546 U.S. 243 (more) 126 S.Ct. 904; 163 L. Ed. 2d 748; 2006 U.S. LEXIS 767; 74 U.S.L.W. 4068; 06 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 433; 2006 Daily Journal D.A.R. 608; 19 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 49
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	Summary judgment granted to plaintiffs in part, permanent injunction entered, sub nom. Oregon v. Ashcroft, 192 F. Supp. 2d 1077 (D. Ore. 2002); on appeal, treated as transferred, petitions for review granted, injunction continued, 368 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir. 2003); cert. granted, sub. nom. Gonzales v. Oregon, 543 U.S. 1145 (2005).
Holding
The Controlled Substances Act does not allow the Attorney General to prohibit doctors from prescribing regulated drugs for use in physician-assisted suicide under state law that permitted the procedure. Ninth Circuit affirmed.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, joined by Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent	Scalia, joined by Roberts, Thomas
Dissent	Thomas
Laws applied
Ore. Rev. Stat. § 127.800 et seq. (2003) (Oregon Death With Dignity Act) 21 U.S.C. § 801 et seq. (Controlled Substances Act) 66 Fed. Reg. § 56608 (2001)

Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court which ruled that the United States Attorney General cannot enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act against physicians who prescribed drugs, in compliance with Oregon state law, to terminally ill patients seeking to end their lives, commonly referred to as assisted suicide.^[1] It was the first major case heard by the Roberts Court under the new Chief Justice of the United States.^[2]

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