Interesting development and I can’t imagine this is coincidence 24 hours after the new administration comes into play
I would suggest this is a key set of words..
“unconstitutionally seizing state-regulated marijuana products and detaining industry workers at interior checkpoints.”
Both agencies want, I. imagine, an unfettered abilty to seize and arrest to comply with the endless administration requests to up “illegal” immigrant arrests and deportations.
Might this end up being a flashpoint for some in the GOP to run the line about “marijuana, illegal immigrants and the dangers of drugs”
A definite watch this space development
Marijuana Moment
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are urging a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit from licensed New Mexico marijuana businesses who claim the agencies have been unconstitutionally seizing state-regulated marijuana products and detaining industry workers at interior checkpoints.
The federal agencies’ core argument is that, as long as marijuana remains federally prohibited, border agents are within their statutory right to disregard state law and seize the property—and that the limited protections that states with marijuana program enjoy under a congressional rider and general Justice Department discretionary policies don’t apply to CBP, which falls under DHS.
Representatives of eight New Mexico marijuana businesses jointly filed the lawsuit against the federal government last October in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. That action came months after initial reports emerged of CBP agents increasingly taking cannabis products and other assets from state licensees at border checkpoints throughout the state.
The plaintiffs are arguing that the CBP actions, without due process, violate protections against unlawful searches and seizures guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment. But CBP is contesting the challenge and moving for dismissal over a “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted,” as well as a “lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
“Their primary contention is that, since marijuana has been legalized as a matter of state law in New Mexico, summarily seizing it deprives them of their state-created property rights in marijuana without due process of law,” the filing, first reported by Law360, says. “But marijuana is currently a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.”
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