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« Why is Ramon Saul Sanchez Starving? | Main | » January 18, 2006
Additional Thoughts on the SCOTUS Decision
Posted by Bill There seems to be a lot of back-and-forth about the relative political importance of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Oregon assisted suicide case, in light of the specific, narrow focus of the decision. An NYT analysis (via Ace): The Supreme Court's ruling was, in fact, notably focused and technical. It did not address whether there is a constitutional right to die. It did not say that Congress was powerless to override state laws that allow doctors to help their patients end their lives. It said only that a particular federal law, the Controlled Substances Act, which is mainly concerned with drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking, had not given John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, the authority to punish Oregon doctors who complied with requests under the state's law. The law allows mentally competent, terminally ill patients to ask their doctors for lethal drugs. And despite my charges of Federalist hypocrisy among the dissenting conservative justices, Baseball Crank sees logical consistency in Scalia, Thomas and Roberts' dissent: The case is more limited than the usual hot-button social-issue case, since the Court was only asked to decide how far Congress intended the statute to go and not what the Constitution says on the matter. I haven't waded through all the conflicting arguments about the statutory issues in sufficient detail to have a firm grip on who has the better argument here; I'm inclined to side with Scalia, but that's not really an educated opinion and much turns on the abstruse issues of administrative law standards of deference. Justice Thomas, though, does have a rather compelling point that if the statute's breadth is as sweeping as the Court claimed in Raich, it's hard to see why it wouldn't also cover the proscriptions here. He specifically references my earlier post: In any event, charges of hypocrisy against the dissenters seem to misunderstand the narrowness of the issue the Court was asked to resolve. Though not speaking as a vaunted legal scholar, I'm still not certain that I misunderstand the narrowness of the issue. Upon further examination, I don't now view this case as an overt Constitutional litmus test for the weighty political issue of assisted suicide; both the narrow, technical dissents and the majority opinions avoid that scope and resonance. But I also don't subscribe to the idea that legal scholarship is an exact science or completely technical endeavor; and thus, given that there is distinct room to interpret the breadth of the FCSA either way - as having authority to govern medically prescribed overdoses or not, in light of both the limited stated intent of the original law as well as contrary precedent that grants the federal government broad powers in such areas - for the conservative strict constructionists to choose the subjective interpretation that expands federal power, based on consistent precedent, especially in a way that happens to mirror conservative ideology ... well that scenario strikes me as at least a minor contravention of consistent federalist impulses. Because if you think the FCSA oversteps Constitutional authority over the states to begin with (a true federalist ideal), and recognize that the statute didn't expressly grant authority to govern physician-assisted suicide (a popularly determined state law, not even an individual act), then why would you vote to endorse an effective expansion of Federal powers? Bottom line: I'm not certain that respect for precedent and consistency in the Court's rulings is the only factor in the conservative dissent, though I certainly can't read minds. And a larger implication that I get from this decision is the following: if Scalia, Thomas and Roberts prioritize authoring decisions that respect stare decis and specifically maintain continuity of well-established legal precedent regarding the scope of federal authority, such respect has implications for cases revolving around other hot-button issues that will be out-of-step with their personal ideology, like federal interference in state abortion law. A hypothetical litmus test for future legal consistency: a case regarding abortion comes before the Supreme Court regarding a state's attempt to restrict access, and the case specifically questions a narrow hypothetical Federal power conferred by an earlier decision from a more liberal incarnation of the Court. Do you lay odds that Scalia votes in favor of Federal power to effectively prevent the state from enacting the restrictive abortion law, or does he vote to restrain Federal power, which practically favors the state's restriction of access to abortion? Even if the case is not overtly framed within direct Constitutional authority, like a high-profile test of the inferred Right to Privacy? I realize that this is an incredibly muddled and hypothetical hypothetical, but I'd put my money on Scalia subjectively choosing to restrain any Federal authority that would prevent the state from restricting access to abortion in that case, precedent be damned. Because ideology informs legal philosophy, especially in Scalia's case, whether we'd like to think so or not. I suppose we'll see. Again, this entire post is caveated by the fact that I'm a terribly amateur legal analyst. Though I did watch LA Law religiously as a kid, and can do a wicked-awesome Benny Stulwicz impression. Frankly - and if I'm lyin' I'm dyin' here - it's off the fucking chain. "Arnie! Arnie!" Better in person. UPDATE: Goldstein agrees with my endorsement of what overarching federalism should look like when weighed against subjective interpretation relying on anti-federalist precedent (anti-federalist precedent initially set by Scalia in Raich), but disagrees that morality was a motivating factor in the conservative dissents: I don’t think the dissenters ruled on “moral” grounds here (that is, I think that though they recognized the moral character of the case, they ruled, ultimately, on expanded DoJ powers, which were legally defensible, though wrong, in my estimation); ulitmately, I believe their decision came down to looking at the case as one of statutory interpretation, and they sided with an increased power of the justice department to regulate and define proper drug usage. Posted by Bill at January 18, 2006 03:22 PM | TrackBack (7) Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsI think that, for me, what matters is that the people of the state of Oregon VOTED on the matter and passed it. Twice. To me, that trumps congress, the courts, the Administration, everybody. The only thing a simple vote does not trump is the Constitution. Takes a nation wide vote on a constitutional amendment to do that. If what the people voted for (or against, as the case may be) is not specifically mentioned in the US Constitution then that vote should stand. Period. I'm really, really, really tired of elected officials (or not elected in the case of Federal judges) telling me what is good for me. Posted by: Fuloydo at January 18, 2006 07:24 PM Bill, given existing Supreme Court precedent on the scope of the commerce clause power, the dissenters' interpretation cannot be an expansion of Federal power. Posted by: Robin Roberts at January 18, 2006 11:05 PM given existing Supreme Court precedent on the scope of the commerce clause power, the dissenters' interpretation cannot be an expansion of Federal power. I realize that you may be exagerrating to make a point, but if the commerce clause power is seemingly absolute by precedent, and it grants absolute authority to the CSA ... ... then given that the CSA does not specify (nor intend) regulation of pharmaceuticals under the lawful prescription of a doctor, a vote to ratify this unspecified federal power is a practical extension of federal power. It expands the scope of the CSA. Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 18, 2006 11:31 PM In ANY case, we CAN agree that the liberal justices on this case are the most hypocritical in their judgement. Posted by: JFH at January 19, 2006 11:04 AM Well sure. But I'd label it more "nuttily, randomly inconsistent," which follows a logical pattern of being totally illogical. ;) I don't smack the liberal justices around as much because they don't really claim or display a discernibly consistent legal philosophy to begin with. Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 19, 2006 11:10 AM Oh, well, that excuses them ... Posted by: Robin Roberts at January 20, 2006 09:55 PM No. Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 21, 2006 10:36 AM We recommend you to visit excellent adware site. qY0ptan0x Posted by: adware at July 14, 2006 01:37 PM thick black interracial cock fuck interracial sex+free Posted by: Bpqx at October 9, 2006 09:57 PM thick black interracial cock fuck interracial sex+free Posted by: Bpqx at October 9, 2006 09:58 PM classic adult movies scat movies Posted by: Ugfbdyri at October 28, 2006 09:58 PM ionolsen33 HI! 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