WASHINGTON -- Supporters of Oregon's assisted-suicide law said they expect Tuesday's Supreme Court decision to be challenged in Congress.

The high court rejected a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die. The justices ruled a federal drug law does not take precedence over the 1997 Oregon law, which more than 200 seriously ill people have used to end their lives.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he'll fight any new congressional attempt to override the state law "tooth and nail." Wyden blocked attempts to overturn it in 2000 by threatening a filibuster.

It would take 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to block a filibuster. Republicans hold 55 seats.

Groups React To Ruling

The head of the Christian Medical and Dental Association said doctors now have "a license to kill."

Dr. David Stevens said the elderly and infirm may feel pressured to choose suicide rather than burden their families with expensive medical care.

"The cheapest form of medical care is always a handful of lethal drugs," he said.

But Robert Kenneth of the Death with Dignity National Center in Oregon said the Supreme Court ruling "permits physicians to care for dying patients in a way that is humane and dignified."

The group's executive director, Peg Sandeen, called the ruling "a historic milestone that will protect the people's rights as patients."

Other groups are attacking the ruling. Focus on the Family said the decision "forces the federal government to sit idly by while drugs are misused by doctors and patients in Oregon."

A statement by Carrie Gordon Earll, the group's senior analyst for bioethics, said the court's decision did not condone physician-assisted suicide.

"(The) decision was simply about the federal government's authority to regulate narcotics, not a justification of assisted suicide," the statement said.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins echoed that sentiment. In a statement, Perkins called physician-assisted suicide "a perversion of the medical profession because it violates a fundamental ethical principle of medicine, 'First, Do No Harm.'"

The American Life League also condemned the ruling, calling euthanasia "morally unacceptable."

Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group founded in 1996 when the Supreme Court previously considered assisted suicide, released a statement expressing its anger with Tuesday's ruling.

"Assisted suicide is not a benefit, it's a threat," said the group's president, Diane Coleman, in a statement.

But the American Civil Liberties Union hailed the decision, saying it respects the right of "mentally competent, terminally ill persons to make end-of-life decisions in consultation with their doctors, and rejecting the federal government's misguided effort to interfere with those decisions."