Gonzales v. Oregon

Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006), was a 6-3 decision limiting the power of the federal government to interfere with local medical issues. Specifically, that case concerned a rule by the United States Attorney General John Ashcroft to prohibit doctors from prescribing regulated drugs for use in physician-assisted suicide, despite an Oregon law allowing this.

The decision established that states, not the federal government, regulate the practice of medicine:

The Government, in the end, maintains that the prescription requirement delegates to a single Executive officer the power to effect a radical shift of authority from the States to the Federal Government to define general standards of medical practice in every locality. The text and structure of the [federal law] show that Congress did not have this far-reaching intent to alter the federal-state balance and the congressional role in maintaining it.

Since that decision and as of 2007, Justice Alito has replaced Justice O'Connor the Court.