sentences:  1978), was a case heard in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1978 to decide whether an involuntarily committed mental patient has a constitutional right to refuse psychiatric medication.It was the first case to establish that such a patient has the right to refuse medication in the United States.John Rennie, age 38, was a former pilot and flight instructor who was a patient at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow Township, New Jersey.