Pubdate: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 Author: Ricardo Baca FEDS TO JUSTICES: DON'T HEAR SUIT The U. S. government has taken Colorado's side in a dispute with neighboring states over marijuana legalization and is urging the Supreme Court not to hear a major challenge to the state's recreational cannabis laws. The new brief filed by U. S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. could have a significant impact on the Supreme Court's willingness to hear the case against Colorado, drug law experts say. The solicitor general's brief comes seven months after the Supreme Court first asked the top government lawyer for an opinion on the lawsuit filed against Colorado's legal cannabis laws by neighboring states Nebraska and Oklahoma. The brief addresses Nebraska and Oklahoma's complaint - and questions its place within the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction. "The motion for leave to file a bill of complaint should be denied because this is not an appropriate case for the exercise of this Court's original jurisdiction," the brief says. "Entertaining the type of dispute at issue here - essentially that one State's laws make it more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in another State - would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this Court's original jurisdiction." The brief ultimately says Nebraska and Oklahoma's proposed lawsuit isn't the type of claim the Supreme Court normally hears, according to Robert Mikos, a professor at Vanderbilt Law and an expert on federalism and drug law. "They hit on a very important issue without having to directly weigh in on the merits of the suit," Mikos said. "The thrust of the argument fromthe SG is that the Supreme Court shouldn't be the first one to hear this dispute." Marijuana law expert Sam Kamin said the solicitor general's brief is "great news for Colorado." "Oklahoma and Nebraska allege that our state regulations are pre-empted by federal law," said Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver, "and here we have a statement from the federal government's highest legal official saying that's not the case." In December 2014, Nebraska and Oklahoma filed the lawsuit directly with the nation's highest court, asking to strike down Colorado's history-making marijuana laws. The states argued that "the State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system. ... Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States' own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems," the lawsuit alleged. In March, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said Nebraska and Oklahoma "filed this case in an attempt to reach across their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they disagree." A representative with Coffman's office said Wednesday they had no comment on the U. S. solicitor general's new brief. The Supreme Court still could decide to hear the case. But if it declines the lawsuit, Nebraska and Oklahoma could then take the case to a federal district court if they choose to, Mikos said. Legalization advocates celebrated the solicitor general's response on Wednesday afternoon in a rush of statements sent to media outlets. DrugPolicy Alliance staff attorney Jolene Forman wrote, "We are pleased the DOJ agrees that this lawsuit borders on the frivolous." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom