Drug Policy

while the tactic may be states' rights - the application is very different.

Sadly, if the Federal govt. had not insisted upon enforcing law that was based upon racism and profiling of particular voting populations (i.e. Nixon's enemies list) we wouldn't have had this CA case before the Supreme Court at all.

So, yes, it's ironic that the Federal Govt., in this case, is on the side that profiles minorities - which may be an indication of just how bad the Federal law is, seems to me.

You could ask why the Federal Govt. has so failed regarding this issue that states have to resort to the courts in order to overcome the corruption of federal-level policy.

Since marijuana arrests target minorities - Hispanics and African-Americans - in this case, the Fed. Govt. shares more with Jan Brewer and Plessy v. Ferguson than with Brown v. the Board of Education.

In fact, at least one lawyer has claimed that, like Brown v. the Board of Education, recent Congressional action to allow the District of Columbia to enact the mmj law that citizens voted to enact is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

So, until we have better federal policy - it looks like this is what progressive states have to work with.