It took a promised filibuster by Ron Wyden to stop John Ashcroft's first crusade against Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law. Once the Missouri Republican became Attorney General, he went to the activist courts to try to overturn the will of Oregon's citizens. Not to be outdone by his predecesor, Alberto Gonzalez has continued the fight, and today the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. The AP's Hope Yen reports:

The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will hear a challenge to the nation's only assisted suicide law, taking up the Bush administration's appeal to stop doctors from helping terminally ill patients die more quickly.

Justices will review a lower court ruling that said the U.S. government cannot sanction or hold doctors criminally liable for prescribing overdoses under Oregon's voter-approved Death with Dignity Act. Since 1998, more than 170 people — most with cancer — have used the law to end their lives.

Arguments will be heard in the court's next term, beginning in October.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft filed the appeal last November, on the day his resignation was announced by the White House. He argued that physician-assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" and that doctors take an oath to heal patients, not help them die.

Oregon lawyers counter that regulation of doctors generally has been the sole responsibility of states. The U.S. attorney general has no authority under the federal Controlled Substances Act to punish doctors because Congress intended the law only to prevent illegal drug trafficking, they say.

A panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Oregon last May.

"The attorney general's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide," wrote Judge Richard Tallman in the 2-1 opinion.

Whatever happened to the right's infatuation with states' rights?