Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Schedule I Status
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]U[/dropcap]S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein dismissed a federal lawsuit on Monday that challenged the prohibition of cannabis. The defendants in the case, the Department of Justice, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requested a motion to dismiss and the judge ultimately complied.
The lawsuit was originally filed on July 24, 2017 and the plaintiffs include 12-year-old Alexis Bortell, Jagger and Sebastian Cotte, Jose Belen, Dean Bartell and former NFL player Marvin Washington. The judge ruled that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the plaintiffs had failed to use administrative procedures within the DEA to challenge the federal ban on cannabis.
“[P]laintiffs’ claim is an administrative one, not one premised on the constitution,” the judge wrote in his dismissal, and “is best understood as a collateral attack on the various administrative determinations not to reclassify marijuana into a different drug schedule.”
The judge did, however, recognize the merits of medical cannabis in his ruling. “After years of searching for viable treatment options, Alexis began using medical marijuana. Since then, she has gone nearly three years without a single seizure,” Hellerstein wrote in an opinion. “I highlight plaintiffs’ experience to emphasize that this decision should not be understood as a factual finding that marijuana lacks any medical use in the United States.”
I’m fine. We know we are going to the Supreme Court but we have to go to Appeals Court first. I am focused on my national school testing this week while my lawyers work on that. These ITBS tests are how I personally prove the government is lying about us. #IStandWithAlexis pic.twitter.com/hrpoqbSaCM
— Alexis Bortell (@AlexisBortell) February 27, 2018
Hellerstein cited an exhaustion rule which mandates “that parties exhaust prescribed administrative remedies before seeking relief from the federal courts.” The plaintiffs therefore have to petition the government, the judge claims, before they can take it to court.
The plaintiffs plan on appealing the ruling, but first, 12-year-old Bortell has school testing to do. “I’m fine,” tweeted Bortell. “We know we are going to the Supreme Court but we have to go to Appeals Court first. I am focused on my national school testing this week while my lawyers work on that. These ITBS tests are how I personally prove the government is lying about us. #IStandWithAlexis”
