CENTER FILES SUPREME COURT BRIEF OPPOSING PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE IN OREGON
This week the CLS Center filed a “friend of the court” brief with the United States Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Oregon supporting the federal government’s effort to curtail physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.
Then Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a directive in response to Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, which authorizes doctors in Oregon to prescribe lethal doses of medication to enable patients to end their lives. In the directive, Ashcroft states that prescribing controlled substances to assist a suicide serves no "legitimate medical purpose" and thus violates the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
In May 2004 a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the directive exceeded the attorney general’s authority. The federal government appealed the Ninth Circuit decision to the U. S. Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear this case during its next term, which will begin in October 2005.
The CLS amicus brief argues that the Court previously appropriately recognized in Washington v. Glucksberg that no tradition of state regulation of physician-assisted suicide exists. They further assert Oregon's professed interest in permitting the use of federally controlled substances to overdose critically ill patients is not a "state interest" the United States is bound to respect.
The Christian Medical Association, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the National Association of Evangelicals joined the brief the CLS Center filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Alliance Defense Fund supported the Center’s work on this case.
CENTER ATTORNEYS SEEK DISMISSAL OF CASE AGAINST FAITH-BASED PRISON MINISTRY
Last week the CLS Center filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed against Firm Foundation of Bradford County.
Firm Foundation is a non-profit, faith-based prison ministry located in Towanda, Pennsylvania, and it operates a vocational training program for inmates at the Bradford County Correctional Facility. The organization is funded by federal, state and local grants.
In the complaint, the ACLU and Americans United claim Firm Foundation violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution by using federal funds for religious purposes and by requiring its employees to be Christians.
The CLS Center, the Alliance Defense Fund, and local counsel Leonard G. Brown, III represent Firm Foundation, and the Alliance Defense Fund is funding the Center’s work on this case.
DEFENDING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES
Attorneys at the CLS Center continue to defend religious liberty on behalf of campus student groups at the University of California - Hastings, Southern Illinois University, Arizona State University, Penn State University, and at other universities across the country. For more information regarding each of the Center’s university cases, please visit www.clsnet.org or www.campusfreedom.org.
The Alliance Defense Fund is financially supporting the Center’s work on behalf of university students.
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