The Supreme Court met in conference to consider the McIver writ prepared by PRN, and decided not to hear the case.

PRN had previously gotten assurances from nationally prominent civil rights and anti-drug-war orgs to support us with Amicus briefs if we could find them a case with a clean, clean doctor. McIver was such a case - but at the last moment the big boys reneged.

Siobhan Reynolds, Dr. Frank Fisher, and myself rushed to prepare an Amicus Curiae from PRN in support of McIver. And through an extraordinary effort, we got it done. Then, as I only vaguely understand it, in a tragic misstep by the lawyers, the PRN Amicus was not submitted, and therefore not considered.

I cannot express adequately my sadness for Dr. McIver and his family. We really tried - and failed. I believe a nationally prominent journalist will soon be publishing on the case, and I do not myself know what further legal recourse poor Dr. McIver has, but if the case can be pushed further, I assure you PRN will be involved to the extent or our resources and skill.

Bill, I’m not yet ready to publish the PRN Amicus Curiae because Siobhan may rework it for formal publication. But I will send you the pdf privately in thanks for your consistent support and for consistently expressing yourself so eloquently.

I’d also like to invite you to join our closed advocacy listServs - will send info privately.

..alex…

Will keep all here informed.

..alex…

The delay in my getting back to bill’s comment is that Siobhan Reynolds and Frank Fisher and I have wrote an Amicus Curae brief in support of McIver’s writ before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Pain Relief Network. — and we ran into the usual time-crunch, and Siobhan had to go to the Virgin Islands to help Dr. Maynard — and I stayed up all night editing this beast and footnote-wrangling…

But we got it done, and I will make it available here as soon as I know it is proper to do so. Hopefully we got it in on time.

My understanding is that the Court will meet in conference to decide whether or not to take Ron McIver’s case. As I’ve said before - that the case will eventually get heard is still a long shot, but just getting to the conference stage is, we at PRN feel, is a real success for us.

More when Siobhan returns and has a moment to fill us in further.

[Also - did anyone else notice the EXCELLENT posts left on TierneyLab and elsewhere by our very own "Bill"? I did. Nice writing, Bill, good points well made.]

..alex…

I would love to see a discourse on how it is decided which cases will be heard in the Supreme Court.

Bill