Whether a jury instruction under the Controlled Substances Act may replace the statutory requirement that a physician be convicted as a drug dealer only if she knowingly or intentionally prescribed without 'authorization'

QUESTION PRESENTED The question presented here is whether, in a jury instruction under the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 801 et seq., language taken from an agency regulation (in particular, 21 C.F.R. § 1306.04(a)) may replace the statutory requirement, imposed by Section 841(a)(1), that a physician may be convicted as a drug dealer only if she knowingly or intentionally prescribed without “authorization.” This is the same question presented in the pending petition in Xiulu Ruan and John Patrick Couch v. United States, No. 22-1175. The present case should therefore be held for the disposition of the Ruan petition and thereafter resolved in accordance with the Court’s disposition of that case.