By Noelle Skodzinski
The lawsuit brought against Colorado by its neighboring states of Nebraska and Oklahoma in late 2014 has been a point of contention in the industry, leaving many to question how a state could even sue another state and what the suit means for the industry. The suit alleged that Colorado's "recreational marijuana stores are propagating the distribution of marijuana into their states causing resource strain to their criminal justice systems," explained Cannabis Business Times' legal correspondent Michele Brooke in a previous article. The suit claimed that Colorado's marijuana laws are unconstitutional as they conflict with federal law.
Wednesday, the Obama Administration urged the Supreme Court to reject the suit, according to various media reports.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
"Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. said Nebraska and Oklahoma are not alleging that Colorado 'has directed or authorized' anyone to transport marijuana across state lines.'At most, they have alleged that third-party lawbreakers are inflicting those injuries, and that Colorado's legal regime makes it easier for them to do so,' Verrilli wrote. Taking up the dispute 'would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this court's original jurisdiction.'Verrilli's brief also notes that Colorado only allows people to possess one ounce or less of marijuana. Such small quantities carried across the border don't cause the states 'to suffer great loss or any serious injury in terms of law-enforcement funding or other expenditures,' Verrilli wrote."
“This is a meritless and, quite frankly, ludicrous lawsuit," commented Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project and a co-director of the 2012 Colorado marijuana initiative, in a prepared statement. "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. 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.”
"A state may sue another state in the Supreme Court, which has exclusive and original jurisdiction," wrote Brooke in a previous Cannabis Business Times article about the suit. "State vs. state lawsuits are not always that interesting to the mainline media, so we do not hear about them very often. For example, in the case State of Oklahoma vs State of Texas 258 U.S. 574, Oklahoma sued Texas to settle a controversy between them over their common boundary along the course of the Red River and over the title to the southerly half of the river bed."
Brooke predicted that Colorado's laws will be upheld, and wrote that "Whether these states even have standing to sue is questionable."
