Whalen v. Roe 1977
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 85-89 |
Page 85
Appellant: Robert P. Whalen, New York Commissioner of Health
Appellees: Richard Roe, et al.
Appellant's Claim: That a New York computer system that stored information about prescription drug users was constitutional.
Chief Lawyer for Appellant: A. Seth Greenwald, Assistant Attorney General of New York
Chief Lawyer for Appellees: Michael Lesch and H. Miles Jaffee
Justices for the Court: Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Warren E. Burger, Thurgood Marshall, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens (writing for the Court), Potter Stewart, Byron R. White
Justices Dissenting: None
Date of Decision: February 22, 1977
Decision: New York's computer system was reasonable and did not violate the right of privacy.
Significance: The government may collect and store vast amounts of private information on computers.
In 1970, New York State was concerned about the abuse of prescription drugs. Prescription drugs are drugs that doctors use to treat patients for illness, pain, and other medical conditions. Each doctor fills out a piece of paper called a prescription, which the patient then gives to
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a pharmacist. The pharmacist, in turn, sells the drug to the patient.
Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.
New York formed a commission to study the state's drug control laws. The commission learned that it was impossible to stop people from using stolen prescription drugs. There also was no way to stop unethical doctors and pharmacists from giving patients more drugs than they needed. Finally, there was no way to stop patients from going to more than one doctor to get many prescriptions for the same drug. All of these problems made it easy for people to abuse prescription drugs by using more than they needed.
Because drug abuse can injure health, ruin life, and even cause death, New York passed a new law to correct these problems. The new law created five drug schedules. Schedule I was for drugs, such as heroin, that had no legal medical uses. Drugs in schedules II through V had valid medical uses but tended to be abused.
Schedule II drugs were prescription drugs with the most serious abuse problems. Under the new law, prescriptions for schedule II drugs had to be written on a form that produced three...
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