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The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a closed-door meeting to discuss a case challenging the constitutionality of federal marijuana prohibition.<\/p>\n
After receiving briefs in support of the lawsuit from Massachusetts-based cannabis businesses<\/a>, justices set a date for a conference on December 12. During the meeting, members of the court will discuss whether to formally take up the case or not.<\/p>\n The court is being asked to settle the question of whether imposing federal marijuana criminalization within states that have enacted their own legalization laws violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n The powerhouse law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP last month submitted their petition for writ of certiorari from the court on behalf of their clients, and the Justice Department earlier this month declined the opportunity to file a brief for or against the case\u2019s consideration<\/a>\u00a0by the justices.<\/p>\n A\u00a0lead attorney representing the petitioners recently told Marijuana Moment that he\u2019s \u201chopeful\u201d<\/a>\u2014albeit somewhat \u201cnervous\u201d\u2014about the prospect of justices ultimately taking up the matter and deciding to address the key legal question about the constitutionality of federal cannabis prohibition.<\/p>\n \u201cTime is of the essence,\u201d Josh Schiller said, noting the dramatic shift in public opinion and state laws governing cannabis. \u201cWe think that this is the right time for this case because of the need\u2014the industry needs to get relief from federal oversight at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the conference<\/a> was scheduled, the Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity Foundation submitted an amicus brief encouraging justices to take the case.<\/p>\n On Monday, meanwhile, the firm representing the cannabis businesses said the Cato Institute and Pacific Legal Foundation\u201dintend to file briefs amici curiae in support of the petition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPetitioners respectfully request that this letter be circulated with the petition for a writ of certiorari,\u201d David Boies said<\/a> in the notice to the court.<\/p>\n A U.S. appeals court\u00a0rejected the arguments of the state-legal cannabis companies<\/a>\u00a0the firm is representing in May. It was one the latest blows to the high-profile lawsuit following a\u00a0lower court\u2019s dismissal of the claims<\/a>. But it\u2019s widely understood that the plaintiffs\u2019 legal team has long intended the matter to end up before the nine high court justices.<\/p>\n Four justices must vote to accept the petition for cert in order for the court to take up the case.<\/p>\n While it is not clear if SCOTUS will ultimately take the case, one sign that at least some on court might be interested in the appeal is a\u00a02021 statement from Justice Clarence Thomas<\/a>, issued as the court denied review of a separate dispute involving a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary.<\/p>\n Thomas\u2019s comments at the time seemed to suggest it\u2019d be appropriate revisit the precedent-setting case, Gonzales v. Raich<\/em>, where the Supreme Court narrowly determined that the federal government could enforce prohibition against cannabis cultivation that took place wholly within California based on Congress\u2019s authority to regulate interstate commerce.<\/p>\n The initial complaint in the current\u00a0case\u00a0now known as\u00a0Canna Provisions v. Bondi<\/em>, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, argued that government\u2019s ongoing prohibition on marijuana under the CSA was unconstitutional because Congress in recent decades had\u00a0\u201cdropped any assumption that federal control of state-regulated marijuana is necessary.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 At\u00a0oral arguments on appeal late last year<\/a>, David Boies told judges that under the Constitution, Congress can only regulate commercial activity within a state\u2014in this case, around marijuana\u2014if the failure to regulate that in-state activity \u201cwould substantially interfere [with] or undermine legitimate congressional regulation of\u00a0inter<\/em>state commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n Boies, chairman of the firm, has a long list of prior clients that includes the Justice Department, former Vice President Al Gore and the plaintiffs in a case that led to the invalidation of California\u2019s ban on same-sex marriage, among others.<\/p>\n Judges, however, said they were \u201cunpersuaded,\u201d ruling in an opinion that \u201cthe CSA remains fully intact as to the regulation of the commercial activity involving marijuana for non-medical purposes, which is the activity in which the appellants, by their own account, are engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n The district court, meanwhile, said in the case that while there are \u201cpersuasive reasons for a reexamination\u201d of the current scheduling of cannabis, its hands were effectively tied by past U.S. Supreme Court precedent in\u00a0Raich<\/em>.<\/p>\n This comes in the background of a pending marijuana rescheduling decision from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump said in late August that he\u2019d make a determination about moving cannabis to Schedule III of the CSA within weeks, but he\u2019s yet to act.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, last month the Supreme Court agreed to hear a\u00a0separate case on the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting people who use marijuana<\/a>\u00a0or other drugs from buying or possessing firearms. The Trump administration has argued that the policy \u201ctargets a category of persons who pose a clear danger of misusing firearm\u201d and should be upheld.<\/p>\n Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel<\/a> and Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Supreme Court Schedules Closed-Door Meeting To Discuss Marijuana Companies\u2019 Case Seeking To Overturn Federal Prohibition<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a closed-door meeting to discuss a case challenging the constitutionality of federal marijuana prohibition. After receiving briefs in support of the lawsuit from Massachusetts-based cannabis businesses, justices set a date for a conference on December 12. During the meeting, members of the court willContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":84570,"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\/84569"}],"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=84569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84571,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84569\/revisions\/84571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Supreme Court Schedules Closed-Door Meeting To Discuss Marijuana Companies\u2019 Case Seeking To Overturn Federal Prohibition<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"