Madison NORML

CONSTITUTION ERODED BY ROBERTS, NOW ALITO

The same Supreme Court justices who decided in June 2005 that terminally and seriously ill Americans cannot use cannabis to help them stay alive have now ruled that it's OK for Oregon physicians to prescribe drugs to help terminally ill people die. Ironically, if all the reefer madness lies were true and marijuana could be used to hasten death rather than manage suffering, it would, apparently, have the blessings of the Supreme Court justices.

The ruling by justices that the federal government overstepped its bounds in attempting to overturn Oregon's assisted suicide law is appropriate. But the dissenting rulings show that, rather than consistently upholding the Constitution and traditional American values like compassion, the Supreme Court seems content to take a piecemeal approach that is neither constitutional nor compassionate.

Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the minority in the Oregon case and Bush's other choice, nominee Samuel Alito, would likely have done the same. With Alito apparently on the way to confirmation, Americans should get used to seeing what's left of our Constitution dwindle.

-- Gary Storck, Madison