{"id":75404,"date":"2024-05-17T12:39:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T20:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/17\/marijuana-companies-want-court-hearing-in-case-challenging-federal-prohibition-to-be-streamed-online-next-week\/"},"modified":"2024-05-17T12:45:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T20:45:30","slug":"marijuana-companies-want-court-hearing-in-case-challenging-federal-prohibition-to-be-streamed-online-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/17\/marijuana-companies-want-court-hearing-in-case-challenging-federal-prohibition-to-be-streamed-online-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana Companies Want Court Hearing In Case Challenging Federal Prohibition To Be Streamed Online Next Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Major marijuana companies are asking a federal court to grant remote public access to a hearing next week in a case where they\u2019re seeking to shield in-state cannabis activity from federal enforcement<\/a>. And the Justice Department says it has \u201cno position\u201d on the request.<\/p>\n

The hearing before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts\u2019s Western Division is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Attorneys for the plaintiffs stressed in a motion filed on Friday that the \u201cdispute involves questions of public concern,\u201d and they\u2019ve \u201creceived a number of requests from members of the press who are seeking means to observe the hearing remotely because they are unable to attend the hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPermitting the hearing to be accessed remotely will not prejudice the parties in any manner,\u201d they said, adding that allowing access via video conference or telephone would work. \u201cPlaintiffs\u2019 counsel conferred with Defendant\u2019s counsel, who confirmed that Defendant takes no position on this motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0suit against the federal government\u2014Canna Provisions v. Garland<\/em>\u2014is being led by multi-state operator Verano Holdings Corp.<\/a>\u00a0and the Massachusetts-based cannabis businesses Canna Provisions and Wiseacre Farm, along with Treevit CEO Gyasi Sellers. Plaintiffs are represented by the law firms Boies Schiller and Flexner LLP and Lesser, Newman, Aleo and Nasser LLP.<\/p>\n

Litigator David Boies\u2014whose list of prior clients includes the Justice Department, former Vice President Al Gore and plaintiffs in the case that led to the invalidation of California\u2019s ban on same-sex marriage\u2014is leading the suit.<\/p>\n

The cannabis businesses have said in their lawsuit against the federal government that the prohibition of marijuana has \u201cno rational basis,\u201d pointing to officials\u2019 largely hands-off approach to the recent groundswell of state-level legalization.<\/p>\n

When plaintiffs made their request for oral arguments last month that was accepted by Obama-appointee Judge Mark G. Mastroianni, DOJ similarly took no position.<\/p>\n

At issue in the case is the degree to which in-state cannabis activity affects interstate commerce, with the government\u00a0arguing that cannabis legalization attracts out-of-state tourists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DOJ argued in a filing last month that \u201cit is rational to conclude that the regulated marijuana industry in Massachusetts fuels a different kind of marijuana-related interstate commerce: marijuana tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Supreme Court held decades ago, Congress has the authority to regulate businesses that cater to tourists from out of state, even if the businesses\u2019 transactions occur wholly in-state,\u201d DOJ said in the brief.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs, meanwhile, contend the Constitution\u2019s Commerce Clause should preclude DOJ from interfering in state-legal activity because it is regulated within a state\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

The filing of the latest motion comes just one day after the President Joe Biden announced that his administration is formally moving to reschedule marijuana<\/a>, with a proposal set to be published in the Federal Register next Tuesday to place cannabis in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n

Attorney General Merrick Garland, a chief defendant in the marijuana industry litigation, signed off on the proposed rule on Thursday. But reclassifying cannabis as Schedule III would not federally legalize it, so it seems unlikely that rulemaking will influence DOJ\u2019s position in the federal court case at hand.<\/p>\n

Read the motion<\/a> on press access to the hearing on marijuana prohibition below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Where Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Stands On Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel<\/a> and Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Marijuana Companies Want Court Hearing In Case Challenging Federal Prohibition To Be Streamed Online Next Week<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Marijuana Companies Want Court Hearing In Case Challenging Federal Prohibition To Be Streamed Online Next Week<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major marijuana companies are asking a federal court to grant remote public access to a hearing next week in a case where they\u2019re seeking to shield in-state cannabis activity from federal enforcement. And the Justice Department says it has \u201cno position\u201d on the request. The hearing before the U.S. DistrictContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75405,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75404\/revisions\/75405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}