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 to be 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