The US Justice Department is issuing statements to the US Supreme Court that they should not take up a case revolving around worker compensation for medical marijuana. The Justice Department has said that doing so would result in wide-ranging implications related to federal supremacy. They had also said that doing so would be pointless due to Congress working towards their own solution on marijuana.
This issue arose after a few court cases in Minnesota where workers sought compensation for medical cannabis from their employers after being injured on the job. In both cases, the local Supreme Court ruled that employers were not obligated to pay for the medicine. After multiple appeals, the US Supreme Court became involved. After justices reached out to many department lawyers, they were warned not to take this case.
“The petitions in these cases, which present a novel question in a rapidly evolving area of law, do not warrant this Court’s review,” DOJ said, also stating that “when a federal law such as the CSA prohibits possession of a particular item, it preempts a state law requiring a private party to subsidize the purchase of that item.”
“The decisions below, however, rest on a more complex rationale that unnecessarily explores the scope of federal aiding-and-abetting liability outside the context of any federal prosecution…”
With legalization coming over the next few years, many expect the US Supreme Court to stay out of the legalization business.
Read the unedited article here.
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