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, 19:32, April 21, 2007
''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:<ref>''Gonzales v. Oregon'', 546 U.S. at 275</ref>
: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.
== Reference ==
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