Rennie v. Klein

Rennie v. Klein
Court	United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
Full case name	John E. Rennie v. Ann Klein, Commissioner of Human Services, Michail Rotov, Director, Division of Mental Health and Hospitals, Richard Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of Ancora Psychiatric Hospital, Max Pepernik, Acting Medical Director of Ancora Psychiatric Hospital, Edward Wallace, Assistant Administrator of Ancora Psychiatric Hospital, and Josefina Bugaoan, Assistant Medical Director of Ancora Psychiatric Hospital
Decided	November 9, 1978
Docket nos.	Civ. A. No. 77-2624
Citation(s)	462 F. Supp. 1131
Case history
Subsequent action(s)	Motion for preliminary injunction denied, December 12, 1978.
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Stanley Brotman

Rennie v. Klein, 462 F. Supp. 1131 (D.N.J. 1978), was a case heard in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1978 to decide whether an involuntarily committed mental patient has a constitutional right to refuse psychiatric medication. It was the first case to establish that such a patient has the right to refuse medication in the United States.^[1]