Supreme Court Brief: Prohibition of Weed Is Unconstitutional An amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this week challenges the constitutionality of marijuana’s prohibited status under the decades-old legal regime.
Submitted by attorneys on behalf of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the 36-page filing focuses on two-plus decades worth of state-based efforts to legalize marijuana in varying degrees. Specifically, the brief juxtaposes those successful reforms against the increasingly lax and permissive attitude of all three branches of the federal government viz. marijuana.
“A supremacy and nullification crisis has loomed for the past 24 years with regard to the 34 States that implemented some form of cannabis legalization program despite its prohibited Schedule I designation under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA),” the filing notes. “This crisis has been fomented by all branches of government. Each have made statements and taken actions to protect and further the state cannabis programs despite federal illegality. States have passed cannabis regulations that defy federal supremacy.”
Filed as a supplementary brief in the case of Washington v. Barr, NORML also notes that, since 2014 Congress has consistently passed appropriations riders that “handcuff” the Executive branch and federal law enforcement–prohibiting them from using federal funds to investigate and prosecute marijuana users or distributors who are in compliance with state law and regulations. Additionally, the brief points out, federal courts have validated those prohibitions and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) previously issued “prosecutorial guidance memoranda” that constrained the federal government from going after state-compliant marijuana businesses.
The resulting and so-called “nullification crisis,” according to the friend-of-court brief, has resulted in the creation of “hundreds of thousands of jobs” and “billions in revenue generated.” But, NORML warns, the state of play between the states and the federal government on marijuana–effectively a law enforcement cease fire–rests on shaky ground and could be overturned at any moment–severely jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods, as well as the legal status, of those employed in or served by the marijuana industry.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a conference on the case in early October.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/supreme-court-brief-prohibition-of-marijuana-is-unconstitutional-due-to-feds-own-statements-and-actions/