The Supreme Court upheld the Oregon Death with Dignity Act today, which should serve as the final word on the statute’s legality. The Court concluded that the Attorney General does not have the authority to define what constitutes an “acceptable medical practice” under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The Court made the right call on this one. If it sided with the government, the AG would have broad authority to determine what practices in which physicians can and cannot engage. For example, the AG could decide that doctors cannot use a certain class of drugs to treat pain. Or the AG could determine that the prescribing a drug for off-label uses is not acceptable.
It’s important to note that both Kennedy and O’Connor sided with the majority. Kennedy seems positioned to assume the role of the Court’s swing vote. That’s why I haven’t gotten too excited about the confirmation of Alito. Under that veneer of inoffensive dullness, Alito is without a doubt a right-wing ideologue. But I’m hopeful that Kennedy will be a moderating influence on the Court, at least until we can get a Democratic president back in office.

Minnesota is temporarily funding prescription drug assistance for low-income individuals who are unable to get their drug prescriptions filled because of technical glitches in the implementation of the new Medicare Part D benefit. Other states are resorting to similar measures. It’s troubling that these glitches seem to be affecting the most vulnerable individuals eligible for the program. In a post-Katrina environment, the federal government needs to demonstrate that it can respond to this problem quickly and effectively. Unfortunately, neither adjective seems to apply to its efforts thus far.

Another view of the living room, including the windows.

It looks like I’ll be getting back half of the vacation time that I lost during last summer’s partial government shutdown. I’m sure Pawlenty is trying to address the remaining shutdown-related issues in the hopes that they won’t come back to bite him during election season, but I’m not impressed with this half-hearted gesture to appease state workers. Of course, I didn’t expect much more from this governor. I do hope that the Legislature enacts safeguards to ensure that state government remains operational even when our elected representatives can’t play nice with each other.

I have a couple opportunities to play teacher this week. Yesterday, I was part of a public-interest panel at a CLE for new attorneys, extolling the many joys of a career serving the good people of Minnesota. Tomorrow, I’m giving my annual talk to a group of college students who are taking a Disability & Society class. This year, I’m going to try outlining my remarks in advance and see how that works for me. As you might guess, I don’t have much of a problem speaking extemporaneously on all things Gimp, but I also don’t want to ramble on and bounce around from topic to topic with no clear, unifying theme. I usually get good reactions from the class, but I don’t want them to remember me as just some guy in a wheelchair who jabbered on for an hour. I want them to actually remember something I said.
Pictures of the new floors will be posted tomorrow, assuming the batteries in my camera aren’t dead.