Free Republic

NASHVILLE - The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told Tennessee gun dealers to disregard a state statute that exempts firearms made and sold inside Tennessee from federal gun laws and registration. The ATF says the federal laws still apply regardless of the state's move. The Tennessee legislature considered and approved several bills this year to reduce restrictions on firearms, including one bill that its sponsors labeled the "Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act." It passed overwhelmingly, the House 87-1 and the Senate 22-7, despite warnings by some lawmakers that it could subject Tennessee citizens to federal prosecution and...

In other words, the majority argues in effect that the private, purely intrastate possession of machine guns has a substantial effect on the interstate machine gun market. This theory, if accepted, would go far toward converting Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce into "a plenary police power." Lopez, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1633. If there is any sort of interstate market for a commodity--and I think that it is safe to assume that there is some sort of interstate market for practically everything--then the purely intrastate possession of that item will have an effect on that market,...

 THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS THE authority to stop Oregon physicians from using prescription drugs to implement that state's unique program of physician-assisted suicide. But the administration's effort to use an ambiguous federal drug statute to undermine Oregon's assisted suicide law is a betrayal of conservative legal principles. Gonzales v. Oregon, argued before the Supreme Court earlier this month, may give an early signal about the commitment of the emerging Roberts Court to those principles. And the Court's decision could have unexpected implications for a range of other issues, including future policies about abortion.Like the administration, I believe that the people...

A states'-rights challenge to enforcement of the Endangered Species Act...failed Monday when the justices, without comment, refused to hear it.The appeal had attracted widespread attention as the most potent of several efforts around the country to make the case that Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce did not extend to protecting animal or plant species that lack commercial value and that live in only one state....[T]he justices' action on Monday provided the latest evidence that the Rehnquist Court's federalism revolution is on the wane....[The case] concerned six endangered species of small insects that live only in caves and sinkholes in...

E-mail Author Send to a Friend Version June 09, 2005, 7:41 a.m. The Ninth Circuit’s Revenge In Gonzales v. Raich, the circuit court won big. By Randy Barnett The Ninth Circuit finally got its revenge on the Supreme Court justices who seemed to delight in reversing it. In Gonzales v. Raich, it gave the conservatives a choice: Uphold the Ninth Circuit's ruling favoring individuals engaged in the wholly intrastate non-economic activity of growing and consuming cannabis for medical purposes as recommended by a doctor and permitted by state law, or retreat from the landmark Commerce Clause decisions of U.S....

In my thankfully limited experience with observing addiction it has always seemed to me that the true "gateway drug" is not marijuana, or even California Coolers, but lying. First comes the nervous exaggeration, then the covering-up of various misdemeanors... and by the time those lies start sounding true, the main barrier to destructive behavior is access to the poison itself. Well, the Supreme Court just gave the Drug War addicts in Congress and the White House the constitutional equivalent of a lifetime supply. No longer will the Commerce Clause present even a tiny weak spot on the dragon of national...

Does Oregon have the constitutional right to force the United States government to permit state doctors to assist patient suicides with federally controlled substances (narcotics)? Or is the federal government entitled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to prevent these federally regulated drugs from being prescribed for lethal use regardless of state law? The Supreme Court will tell us soon in Gonzales v. Oregon, a case that will not only influence the course of the euthanasia and assisted-suicide debate, but will also profoundly impact the delicate balance of power between “states rights” and the overarching sovereignty of the federal government....

The local, Washington DC affiliate of ABC News (Channel 7) reported that the USSC ruling on the Raich medical marijuana case would be released this morning.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x JOHN D. ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL : Petitioner, : v. : No. 03-1454 ANGEL McCLARY RAICH, et al. : - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x Washington, D.C. Monday, November 29, 2004 The above-entitled matter came on for oral argument before the Supreme Court of the United States at 10:04 a.m. APPEARANCES: PAUL D. CLEMENT, ESQ., Acting Solicitor General, Department...

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE 12-05-04 To those who support our constitutionally limited “Republican Form of Government“, Raich v. Ashcroft is not about “medical Marijuana” but rather, the case presents a chance to correct a despotic decision made by the SCOTUS in 1942 concerning Congress’ power to regulate commerce in which the Court gave a new meaning to the word “commerce” in order to allow part of FDR’s NEW DEAL socialism [price controls] to pass as being constitutional, when it was not. The following article is worth reading, and can be found at findlaw.com.The Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on a...

US Supreme Court to Hear Medicinal Marijuana Case Doctors in some parts of the United States have prescribed marijuana to people suffering from a variety of medical conditions; from glaucoma patients to cancer victims undergoing painful chemotherapy. Though it is used for medicinal purposes in many parts of the world, marijuana remains illegal in most countries. Eleven U.S. states currently allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The issue was also voted on in three states in the November election. It won passage in the northern state of Montana. But voters in the western state of Oregon turned down...

Angel McClary Raich is seriously ill. Diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and several complicating conditions, Raich found traditional medical treatments to be of little use. Having exhausted every legal alternative, her doctor recommended that she try marijuana — and it worked. Like many individuals suffering from chronic pain or loss of appetite, Raich found that marijuana alleviated her symptoms substantially. Yet to continue with this treatment, Raich, and those who supply her with marijuana free of charge, had to break federal law. Under California law, Raich can possess and use marijuana pursuant to a doctor’s prescription or recommendation....

How the Supreme Court's ruling on medical marijuana will impact not just the drug war, but the judicial concept of federalism.ASHCROFT V. RAICH, the "medical marijuana" case argued this week in the Supreme Court, is less about marijuana and its medical effects than it is about federal power--specifically the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. Liberals worry that a court that in recent years has somewhat limited that power will use Raich to make serious forward progress with its "new federalism agenda." To judge by the oral argument, however, no majority seems ready to do that. Yet if, as...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a law outlawing marijuana applies to medical use by two seriously ill California women whose doctors recommended cannabis for their pain. The high court said it would review a ruling that the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 cannot be applied constitutionally to the manufacture, possession and distribution without charge of marijuana for medical use. The ruling by a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco found the two women had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on their claim that the federal law, as applied to them, is...