The real legal issue here is not assisted suicide, but the power of the federal government over the sovereignty of the states. Kennedy just had a conservative moment and sided with the states.
Any body of authority, government or other, then bears a duty to recover the captives of that evil State, and to crush that evil.
This is common law. Predates Constitution, and the Constitution did not change it.
I'd respect Kennedy if he was consistent on a states rights issue but he is not.
Kennedy is terrible at differing to the states.
Take the death penalty last year for minors. He didn't defer to the states and instead cited international law.
Take the Texas Sodomy law where he didn't defer to texas.
Kennedy rules based on his liberal beleifs.
O'Conner is terrible on social issues but on other issues she would take a more consistent conservative viewpoint.
To hear liberals talk about how far the court will move to the right is total nonsense.
Breyer,Stevens,Souter,Kennedy,Ginsberg will still form the majority opinion in most controversial cases.
Stevens who ford loves is quite clever in always giving the majority opinion to kennedy or o'conner.
This court will still be a disaster when alito gets on.
Kennedy is like O'Connor in that regard. No consistency. He is all over the place. He is a disgrace as a supreme court justice. He has no consistent legal philosophy.
Recently he has always sided with the breyer and souter wing.
For those that thought roberts would bring Kennedy over are wrong. Kennedy is a stealth liberal.
Kennedy right now is the most powerful person in this country by far. He will decide so many supreme court cases and a lot of them the conservative side will lose.
There is that little thing in the Constitution called "the right to life"