Assisted suicide offers early test of Roberts' court

Assisted suicide offers early test of Roberts' court: "Assisted suicide offers early test of Roberts' court
Supreme Court - Justices face the question: Did John Ashcroft overstep by targeting doctors on Oregon law
Sunday, October 02, 2005
ASHBEL S. GREEN

The first big case Chief Justice John Roberts and a reshaped U.S. Supreme Court will take on this week is one of Oregon's unique rights: doctor-assisted suicide.

The case will be watched closely in Oregon, where political and legal attacks against assisted suicide have raged almost continuously since voters first approved the Death with Dignity Act in 1994.

But the rest of the nation will be looking on as well, eager to see how a largely unknown Roberts will help the court resolve a classic clash between the federal government and a state experiment in social policy."