1. What was the Justice Department’s argument on behalf of the Attorney General’s Interpretive Regulation?
2. According to the Supreme Court majority, what rulemaking powers does the U.S. Attorney General possess?
3. Why did the Supreme Court reject the Justice Department’s arguments and affirm the lower courts?

Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question before us is whether the Controlled Substances Act allows the United States Attorney General to prohibit doctors from prescribing regulated drugs for use in physician-assisted suicide, notwithstanding a state law permitting the procedure. As the Court has observed, “Americans are engaged in an earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality, and practicality of physician-assisted suicide.” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 735 (1997). The dispute before us is in part a product of this political and moral debate, but its resolution requires an inquiry familiar to the courts: interpreting a federal statute to determine whether Executive action is authorized by, or otherwise consistent with, the enactment.