Why do we have to talk about illegal drugs on a gun forum?
Why do we have to talk about illegal drugs on a gun forum?
The petition for a writ of certiorari should be held pending this Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. Raich, No. 03-1454 (to be argued Nov. 29, 2004), and then disposed of as appropriate in light of the Court’s decision in that case.
"In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that states should be allowed to set their own rules.
"The states' core police powers have always included authority to define criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens," said O'Connor, who was joined by two other states' rights advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas."
"Stevens said that the appellate court reached a different conclusion only "by isolating a separate and distinct class of activities that it held to be beyond the reach of federal power, defined as the intrastate, noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician and in accordance with state law."
In addition, he said, "limiting the activity to marijuana possession and cultivation in accordance with state law cannot serve to " place" the activities "beyond congressional reach." The Constitution's Supremacy Clause, he said, "unambiguously provides that if there is any conflict between federal and state law, federal law shall prevail."
Congress cannot define the scope of its own power merely by declaring the necessity of its enactments.
In sum, neither in enacting the CSA nor in defending its application to respondents has the Government offered any obvious reason why banning medical marijuana use is necessary to stem the tide of interstate drug trafficking. Congress’ goal of curtailing the interstate drug trade would not plainly be thwarted if it could not apply the CSA to patients like Monson and Raich. That is, unless Congress’ aim is really to exercise police power of the sort reserved to the States in order to eliminate even the intrastate possession and use of marijuana.
In order for there to be a conflict, the feds must have authority in the first place. - publius