Federalism Only Goes So Far
I’ve been waiting for today’s Supreme Court decision for a while now, really ever since I drew this cartoon, and unfortunately I’m not at all surprised. Today the court upheld the ability of the federal government to enforce federal drug laws against offenders who are using and distributing medicinal marijuana legally according to state laws.
As the New York Times explains, this entirely contradicts the Supreme Court’s drive for federalism in recent years, a sentiment that several of the more conservative judges such as Chief Justice Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor agreed with in their dissenting opinions. It is yet another example of the espoused political philosophy of the court being abandoned when it comes up against a pet Republican issue like drug control. While I continually expect partisanship from the courts, too many people put faith in their ability to determine the justice of law fairly and objectively, and this is but the latest example.
Perhaps they were afraid of being called activist judges by their own party. Or perhaps they are guilty of the same sins: preaching a philosophy of federalism, except when it does not suit their interests. And while they have broken with their party on some of the more outrageous acts of injustice in recent years, most notably demanding the release of military prisoners that were held without being charged, they have as yet remained silent on the PATRIOT Act, on of the largest affronts to the Constitution since Nixon.
This ruling is about far more than sick people smoking pot. It is about a dated campaign against a plant, whose forbidden status has more to do with a stigma levied against it by generations of propaganda than any real threat to society. Whose use is so widespread at this point it rivals alcohol for share of the intoxication market and legalization would do little to change the quantity it is consumed.
It is about a country that is so backwards in its treatment of the elderly and ill that huge portions of the country go without health care, and now they will be denied a drug that could ease their pain because lawmakers aren’t ready to look beyond the hysteria they’ve created.
It is about a political system that will dismiss their own philosophical foundations when it seems to be giving way to more compassionate government.
Edit: Another oddity in the decision is it relies heavily on Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce, however marijuana grown for medicinal purposes is grown in the state where it is intended to be used. While patients could aquire it illegally that transaction would be illegal regardless of this decision. The state of California regulated the growth and distribution of medical marijuana until put down by federal law. The laws upheld today allow patients to be prosecuted for possesion, and growers with no intention of exporting their product to be tried as if they were.