Disorder in the Court: Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Constitution

Abstract

Justice Robert Jackson once described a Supreme Court decision, from which he was dissenting, as "more interesting to students of psychology and of the judicial processes than to students of constitutional law."' His observation might equally apply to the Court's recent rulings about physician-assisted suicide. Whatever their explanation-psychologically or jurisprudentially- the Justices' conduct in this matter was surely unusual.