The Supreme Court dealt a blow on Monday to the War on Drugs when it voted 6-2 against considering a challenge to Colorado’s legalization of cannabis.
Nebraska and Oklahoma had asked the court to declare unconstitutional the state’s move to permit the recreational use of marijuana. Only Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito believed that the Justices should have heard the case.
“Whatever the merit of the plaintiff States’ claims, we should let this complaint proceed further rather than denying leave without so much as a word of explanation,” Thomas wrote in dissent. The conservative justice noted that Nebraska and Oklahoma had claimed they were forced by Colorado to exhaust additional resources to fight “increased trafficking and transportation of marijuana.”
In 2012, Colorado voters approved of marijuana legalization in a referendum by a 55-45 margin. Nebraska and Oklahoma petitioned the Supreme Court in 2014 to enjoin the law, almost 12 months after it took effect.
The New York Times described the two plaintiffs’ motion as “rare,” due to it being based on inter-state discord.
“The Constitution gives the court such ‘original jurisdiction’ to hear disputes between states, but the court uses it sparingly, most often to adjudicate boundary disputes or water rights,” the paper noted.
The Obama administration had stood with Colorado in opposing Nebraska and Oklahoma’s lawsuit. In December, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the two states’ complaint.
“There is no dispute about the United States’ authority to enforce the [Controlled Substances Act], and the relief requested by Nebraska and Oklahoma would not require any adjudication of the rights of the United States,” he wrote.
The Times noted that both Verilli and Colorado officials said “Nebraska and Oklahoma could pursue their objections in a more conventional suit, filed in a federal trial court.”
Courthouse News said that the majority declined to offer any opinion on their decision “[a]s is their custom.”
