In one of the final cases of a tumultuous term at the Supreme Court, the Justices ruled against DOJ in a decision that could have wide ranging effects not just for physicians and other prescribers, but for drug control laws more generally. In Xiulu Ruan v. U.S., No. 20-1410 (Jun. 27, 2022), the Court considered the convictions of two physicians for violating the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 841 because, DOJ contended, and the respective juries found, that their prescriptions were “not authorized.” (The relevant statute makes it a federal crime to “[e]xcept as authorized[,]….knowingly or intentionally…dispense…a controlled substance.” Id.). One physician was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment; a second to 25 years. Each, at trial, had contended that their prescriptions were authorized, that they had the requisite credentials to write prescriptions, including DEA and state board registrations, and that they were properly licensed. DOJ, meanwhile, had argued that the physicians were operating “pill mills” and, accordingly, their prescriptions were not “authorized.”
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