The federal government has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to avoid wading into a lawsuit brought by Oklahoma and Nebraska over Colorado’s legalized marijuana system.
Oklahoma and Nebraska say Colorado’s legal marijuana system has created a flood of modern-day bootleggers who are buying pot in Colorado and then illegally crossing state lines. Oklahoma and Nebraska have sued Colorado, asking the Supreme Court to block the state’s legal marijuana system. Colorado asked the court to throw out the lawsuit, and the Supreme Court this fall asked the federal government to weigh in.
"Entertaining the type of dispute at issue here — essentially that one state’s laws make it more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in another state — would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this court’s original jurisdiction,” Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. wrote in his response filed Wednesday.
Verrilli argued the Supreme Court generally has avoided stepping into disputes between states unless it is the states themselves that are at odds. Oklahoma and Nebraska have sued Colorado over the actions of private citizens who are breaking the law. Colorado’s legal marijuana system allows people within the state to grow, possess and consume it, but leaving Colorado remains illegal.
And marijuana also remains completely illegal at the federal level. Oklahoma and Nebraska argue Colorado’s system violates federal interstate commerce laws and the Controlled Substances Act.
Marijuana-legalization advocates see Verrelli’s filing as a sign the Obama administration is willing to relax federal restrictions, or at the very least a strong signal that voters who chose to legalize cannabis should be respected.
"This is a meritless and, quite frankly, ludicrous lawsuit. We hope the court will agree with the solicitor general that it’s not something it should be spending its time addressing. These states are literally trying to prevent Colorado from controlling marijuana within its own borders,” said Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. "If officials in Nebraska and Oklahoma want to have a prohibition-fueled marijuana free-for-all in their states, that’s their prerogative. But most Coloradans would prefer to see marijuana regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol.”
Source: usatoday.com
Photo: dallasobserver.com