Supreme Court won't consider state challenge to Colorado pot legalization
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The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to allow Nebraska and Oklahoma to file an original jurisdiction lawsuit that seeks to invalidate Colorado’s legalization of marijuana under the supremacy clause.
The Supreme Court on Monday denied a motion seeking leave to file the suit. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the denial (PDF) in a decision joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. “I would not dispose of the complaint so hastily,” Thomas wrote.
The states wanted the court to hear the case under a provision of the Constitution that allows controversies between the states to be tried in the U.S. Supreme Court. They had argued that the Colorado law results in marijuana flowing into neighboring states, undermining their bans on the drug and stressing their criminal justice systems.
The Obama administration had urged the court not to accept the case. A brief by U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued that Nebraska and Oklahoma are essentially arguing that Colorado’s marijuana laws make it more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in another state. That is different from a situation where a state is accused of directly harming another state, according to the brief.
Thomas argued that the Supreme Court does not have discretion to refuse original jurisdiction cases in controversies between the states, even though it has long exercised such discretion. “Because our discretionary approach appears to be at odds with the statutory text, it bears reconsideration,” Thomas said in his dissent (PDF).
“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.”
The case is Nebraska v. Colorado.
