Press Release: U.S. GOVERNMENT ASKS SCOTUS TO DISMISS CHALLENGE TO MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

Contact: Mikayla Hellwich                                                                                                                                                            

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U.S. GOVERNMENT ASKS SCOTUS TO DISMISS CHALLENGE TO MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

Solicitor General Advises SCOTUS Not To Hear Lawsuit Nebraska and Oklahoma Filed Against Colorado

Washington, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Solicitor General, Donald Verrilli Jr., issued a statement advising the Supreme Court not to hear a lawsuit Nebraska and Oklahoma filed against Colorado's marijuana legalization law last December. Oklahoma and Nebraska attorneys general filed the suit in hopes of re-criminalizing marijuana in Colorado, claiming it had created a burden on their own law enforcement agencies and because marijuana is still federally illegal.

The Solicitor General stated, "Entertaining the type of dispute 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."

"I’m happy to see the administration is supporting states’ rights to decide their own marijuana policy," said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.)executive director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a criminal justice group working to end marijuana prohibition. “If Nebraska and Oklahoma want to stop wasting police resources on marijuana, they should be working hard to legalize and control it.”

Marijuana is legal for adult-use in 4 states and the District of Columbia and legal for medical uses in 23 states and D.C. California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Arizona, and Maine are all assembling campaigns to legalize marijuana for adult-use by initiative process in the 2016 elections. Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Jersey are among states working on legislation that would do the same.

LEAP is committed to ending decades of failed marijuana policy that have wreaked havoc on public safety and fostered corruption and racism. Marijuana prohibition has distracted law enforcement from dealing with more important crimes, ensured that average, law-abiding citizens are treated like criminals, and deprived countless people from equitable housing, education, and employment opportunities.

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