Florida\u2019s agriculture commissioner is feeling good about a court hearing last week where she says her legal team did a \u201ccompelling job\u201d arguing before a federal judge about their lawsuit challenging the Justice Department over the federal ban on gun ownership by medical marijuana patients.<\/p>\n
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried filed the lawsuit back in April, alongside Florida medical cannabis patients who are unable to buy or possess firearms because of the federal policy that she says is unconstitutional and discriminatory. There have been multiple filings in the case, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida held an oral hearing on the matter last week.<\/p>\n
The point of the hearing was to address the Justice Department\u2019s motion to dismiss. DOJ has faced criticism over its controversial arguments against the lawsuit, and the department has maintained that statute plainly disqualifies the patients from gun rights because consuming cannabis, even in compliance with state law, is still federally illegal.<\/p>\n
The court hasn\u2019t yet reached a decision on the motion, but an attorney representing Fried and the patients told Marijuana Moment on Friday that the judge raised thoughtful questions to both parties over the hour-long proceeding, signaling that he\u2019s taking the issue seriously.<\/p>\n
Attorneys did touch on merits of the case, briefly outlining their positions, but formal consideration of those arguments would depend on whether the judge grants or rejects DOJ\u2019s motion to dismiss. If the case is dismissed, plaintiffs would then consider appealing the decision to a higher court.<\/p>\n
Fried said following the hearing that the case reflects the fulfillment of her 2018 campaign promise \u201cthat I was always going to protect our medical marijuana patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThank you to the other plaintiffs, our attorney, and all those who were present at the courthouse in support of our lawsuit today in Tallahassee. We will always fight for medical marijuana patients in our state! pic.twitter.com\/gBrfZ00UEF<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Commissioner Nikki Fried (@NikkiFriedFL) October 12, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\u201cAnd so today, I lived up to that promise, and we\u2019ll wait to hear what the judge says,\u201d the commissioner said. \u201cBut I think that we did a compelling job to make sure that we get past their motion to dismiss and we continue on the merits of this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arguments in DOJ\u2019s initial request for the lawsuit to be dismissed<\/a>\u00a0took some by surprise, as the department cited historical case law to support the cannabis ban that drew parallels between medical cannabis patients and people who are mentally ill, panhandlers, Catholics and other groups that were previously deprived of the right to possess firearms.<\/p>\n
In its most recent filing last month, the department seemed to partially back off its prior assertions<\/a> that cannabis makes people more inclined toward violent crime in general, but it did say that those who consume marijuana are intrinsically too dangerous to own guns because they\u2019re breaking federal law, even if it\u2019s a misdemeanor offense.<\/p>\n
Fried and others, in an earlier filing in the case, took issue with the department\u2019s insistence that medical marijuana patients are inherently dangerous, while still maintaining that people who drink alcohol have a lawful Second Amendment right because drinking is federally legal for adults.<\/p>\n
DOJ\u2019s original motion for dismissal read as \u201cinsulting,\u201d Fried told Marijuana Moment in August<\/a>. \u201cI think that they missed the ball here\u2014and it\u2019s very disconcerting that this is the direction that they took.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s Justice Department relied on arguments \u201cas \u2018contradictory and unstable\u2019 as their overall marijuana policy,\u201d the plaintiff\u2019s last filing says, citing 2021 remarks about the state-federal cannabis conflict from\u00a0conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs\u2019 complaint was also revised in July<\/a> following a Supreme Court ruling that generally created a higher standard for policies that seek to impose restrictions on gun rights. The ruling states that any such restrictions must be consistent with the historical context of the Second Amendment\u2019s original 1791 ratification.<\/p>\n
That filing also cited several quotes from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said during his confirmation proceedings that\u00a0DOJ shouldn\u2019t waste resources<\/a>\u00a0going after people acting in compliance with state marijuana laws and that marijuana is a \u201cnon-violent crime with respect to usage that does not require us to incarcerate people.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the time being, the current federal policy persists, making it so people are denied gun purchases if they\u2019re honest about their cannabis use while filling out a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) background check form\u2014regardless of state law.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden hasn\u2019t weighed in on the commissioner\u2019s lawsuit, but he did recently talk about the ATF policy in the context of a possible federal investigation into his son Hunter, who admitted in a memoir that he\u2019d bought a gun while suffering from a substance misuse disorder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis thing about a gun\u2014I didn\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d the president told<\/a> CNN. \u201cBut turns out that when he made application to purchase a gun, what happened was he\u2014I guess you get asked\u2014I don\u2019t guess, you get asked a question, are you on drugs, or do use drugs?\u2019 He said no. And he wrote about saying no in his book.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I have great confidence in my son,\u201d he said. \u201cI love him and he\u2019s on the straight and narrow, and he has been for a couple years now. And I\u2019m just so proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Fried previously told Marijuana Moment, the lawsuit at hand is not about expanding gun rights, per se. It\u2019s a matter of constitutionality that she and other key allies in the gun reform movement\u00a0feel would bolster public safety<\/a>\u00a0if the case ultimately goes in their favor.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the lawsuit argue that the ATF requirement effectively creates an incentive for cannabis consumers to either lie on the form, buy a gun on the illicit market or simply forgo a constitutional right.<\/p>\n
In 2020, ATF\u00a0issued an advisory specifically targeting Michigan<\/a>\u00a0that requires gun sellers to conduct federal background checks on all unlicensed gun buyers because it said the state\u2019s cannabis laws had enabled \u201chabitual marijuana users\u201d and other disqualified individuals to obtain firearms illegally.<\/p>\n
There have been previous efforts in Congress to specifically protect medical cannabis patients against losing their right to purchase and possess guns,\u00a0but those efforts have not been enacted<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nCory Booker Says Congress Has A \u2018Good Shot\u2019 At Passing Marijuana Reform During Lame Duck Session<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
The post Florida Ag Commissioner Touts Team\u2019s \u2018Compelling\u2019 Arguments At Medical Marijuana And Guns Hearing In Federal Court<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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