The Supreme Court today announced that it won’t hear the Oklahoma/Nebraska anti-10th Amendment lawsuit against Colorado’s marijuana market. From USA Today
The Supreme Court refused Monday to referee a simmering dispute between Colorado and two neighboring states over the cross-border impact of marijuana legalization, heartening legalization advocates who feared the high court could have rolled back their gains.
The justices denied an effort by Oklahoma and Nebraska to bring their grievances about pot-related crime directly to the nation’s highest court without seeking to go through lower courts first. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, saying they would have heard the states’ complaint.
Importantly, here, the suing states were taking a dangerous federal supremacy position:
The neighboring states also argued that the Constitution’s supremacy clause leaves the issue to the federal government, which still considers marijuana to be an illegal substance. Since their lawsuit was filed, sheriffs from several states and an anti-crime group have sued Colorado in lower courts.
This issue isn’t dead, it’s just not getting fast-tracked to SCOTUS. So keep watching as the opponents of the 10th Amendment – mostly from the right this time – will keep pushing to attack the ability of states to make their own decisions on issues that shouldn’t be nationalized.
See our previous reporting on the issue here and here.
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