First Circuit Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Federal Marijuana Prohibition

In 2005, in Gonzales v. Raich , the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the federal prohibition of the cultivation, distribution, and possession of marijuana, even where legal under state law for medicinal purposes. Many did not like this decision ( including me ), in no small part because it embraced an unnecessarily capacious understanding of Congress's power to reach intrastate conduct through the Necessary and Proper Clause. While the Court's enumerated powers holdings in NFIB v. Sebelius may have constrained some potential applications of Raich , the underlying decision remains good law.

With Raich on the books, it should be no surprise that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected newly filed constitutional challenges to federal marijuana prohibition