KIE: Court Decision: 368 Federal Reporter, 3d Series 1118; 2004 May 26 (date of decision). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with a lower court that a United States Attorney General's directive stating that physician assisted suicide violates the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA) and criminalizing conduct authorized by Oregon's Death with Dignity Act was unlawful and unenforceable. The State of Oregon brought a suit challenging a directive issued by United States Attorney General John Ashcroft known as the Ashcroft Directive. The Ninth Circuit held that the Directive violated the language of the CSA, breached Congress' express legislative intent, and exceeded the limits of the Attorney General's statutory authority. The court first found that the regulation of professional medical conduct is traditionally a state power and that the Attorney General may not exercise control over this power because he was not unmistakably and clearly authorized to do so by Congress. The court then held that the Directive violated the plain language of the CSA by exceeding the scope of Federal Authority articulated by the CSA, misconstruing the Attorney General's role under the statute and failing to adhere to instructions in the statute for revoking physician prescription privileges. Finally, the court held that the Attorney General exceeded the scope of his authority because Congress "empowered 'the principal health agency of the the federal government, not the Attorney General, to make medical decisions under the Act."