SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO REVIEW INVOLUNTARY MEDICATION CASE

    Always a touchy subject and one that brings out great passions on both sides, involuntary medication treatment was ordered by a court in order to try to restore a criminal defendant to competency to stand trial.  The shocking nature of the crimes charged aside, the issue of whether a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to refuse psychotropic medication is an interesting one. 

    Thousands of law review pages have been written on the subject.  Some authors argue that psychotropic medication is too dangerous to force anyone to take involuntarily.  Others, myself included, have argued that the advancements of recent years have rendered that argument nugatory.  Also, many continue, society has a right and, indeed, an obligation to help those too ill to make informed consent decisions about treatment receive appropriate treatment to help them get better, even when that means having to stand trial for an alleged criminal act.

    This could have been a breakthrough case with the Supreme Court speaking authoritatively about which side has today's correct view of the constitution.  I'm sorry that the Court blew this one.

    Thanks, again, to the ABA Journal Daily Newsletter for bringing this to our attention.  http://www.abajournal.com/news/supreme_court_wont_hear_accused_kidnappers_forcible_medication_appeal.