Posted on 12/18/2005 1:28:41 PM PST by JTN
ST. LOUIS, Dec. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On Monday, Dec. 12, lawyers Bruce Ellison and David Frankel representing Alex White Plume and his family of the Lakota Nation who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation, made oral arguments in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in front of a three judge panel to reverse efforts by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to place an injunction preventing the White Plumes from growing industrial hemp. In what has been deemed a sovereignty case that is very uniquely framed, the White Plumes planted industrial hemp on their family land for three seasons only to have it cut down and confiscated by DEA agents.
During the oral arguments it became clear that Judge Kermit Bye and Judge Arlen Beam were focused on two issues: (1) the irrationality of allowing the exempt parts of the plant to be imported into the U.S. but not allowing industrial hemp to be grown in the U.S. and (2) the lack of any rational permitting process by the DEA. While the Government's case was made, Judge Beam commented, "It seems asinine to me that they can bring in the Canadian stuff and use it but can't grow it." Beam also suggested that it did not make sense that Congress would try to make the economy of Native American tribes more enhanced by casino gambling but not allow industrial hemp cultivation.
The White Plumes assert their right to raise non-psychoactive industrial hemp as an exercise of their sovereign rights pursuant to an Oglala Sioux Tribal ordinance enacted to secure rights guaranteed by the Treaties of 1868 and 1851 signed between the Lakota Nation and the U.S. Nevertheless, the U.S. government maintains that its' asserted "trust responsibility" gives it the final authority to decide appropriate uses of reservation lands.
The federal government filed a civil suit against the White Plumes in U.S. District Court in South Dakota despite the fact that the Lakota were growing hemp for seed and fiber when they entered into the treaties with the U.S. government and that industrial hemp is legally imported to the U.S. from dozens of countries to feed the explosive US and global demand for nutritious omega-3 rich hemp foods and ecological hemp fiber products. The DEA sought a permanent injunction to prevent the White Plumes from growing industrial hemp without federal permission because the DEA has placed a de facto ban on non-psychoactive industrial hemp farming in the U.S. by treating it as if the crop were the same as drug/medical marijuana. Late last December, the court granted the government's motion for summary judgment which led to the appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"The District Court completely ignored relevant Indian law, the treaties, the Constitution and the significance of the Myerle Papers when they granted the government's motion for summary judgment," says David Frankel, attorney and Vote Hemp board member.
"Because federal Indian law allows tribes to continue doing something today that they were doing at the time they signed treaties with the U.S. government, the Lakota have an excellent chance at reversal," says Ken Friedman, local counsel for the Hemp Industries Association and Vote Hemp who submitted their amicus brief in the White Plume case.
A decision in the case is expected in 2006. To read about the White Plume case and download the Vote Hemp and Hemp Industries Association amicus brief, please visit: http://votehemp.com/legal_cases_WP.html
For more information on industrial hemp, please visit http://www.votehemp.com , the Web site of Vote Hemp, a non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of industrial hemp.
Ping
enforcement of the prohibition on growing hemp, example number 1007 that we pay too much in tax.
Bump
Somebody put this judge on the USSC.
The real irony is that the US constitution itself, AND the Declaration of Independence are both written on hemp paper, and that several of our founding fathers farmed it.
I thought a judge was suppose to rule on the law, no matter how asinine it might be.
What law?
Federal Judge Calls DEA's Views on Hemp Farming 'Asinine'
Understatement of thr century.
Hells bells, why not let ANYONE grow industrial hemp? Why let Canada export the stuff to us when we could grow it ourselves?
The government has no business preventing a farmer from growing an industrial crop. Do we believe in small government or not?
You can't complain about an 'activist' judiciary if all you want is an 'activist' judiciary that ignores of overrules the laws you don't like.
The real issue here is (once again) the limit on Congress' police powers under the Commerce Clause. And, in this case, the Lakota are on weaker grounds than those who are citizens by birth and who are citizens of a state: the Congress (legally) has more jusrisdiction over Indian lands, the same way it has more jusrisdiction over DC or military reservations.
Hemp makes better linen than flax for some things...and Americans used to grow it..it's a part of American history.
pierrem15 wrote:
The real issue here is (once again) the limit on Congress' police powers under the Commerce Clause. And, in this case, the Lakota are on weaker grounds than those who are citizens by birth and who are citizens of a state: the Congress (legally) has more jusrisdiction over Indian lands, the same way it has more jusrisdiction over DC or military reservations.
Replies
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1515174/replies?c=2887
Congress can use the Commerce Clause to prepare for conflict, for war..
For war with foreign nations, or indian tribes.. --Not for 'war' against the several States or US citizens.
Congress does not have the power to regulate among the several States as an adversary..
It is ludicrous to believe that the government of the United States is empowered by the Constitution to wage a prohibitive commerce 'war' on its own States or its own citizens.
Hemp and mj are NOT the same. Hemp was grown widely in the plains states during WWII to provide fiber for various products needed in the war effort. That is one reason you can still find it growning wild along roads in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas. It is certainly not smokeable, it will give you a terrific headache and nausea. We used to laugh about the dopers who came traveling across SD in the 60s who thought they had found heaven with all of the hemp growing along the highways. Most of them I am sure regretted taking and smoking the crap. I am against mj -- seen too many inlaws and outlaws start with it and move to coke, speed etc and ruin their lives. Hemp is a legitimate crop and should be grown for industrial purposes.
Oh I know all about hemp in history. General Sterling Price's troops used hemp bales as shields when fighting Union soldiers in the battle of Lexington here in my home state of Missouri.
Used to be a great cash crop for my state. Hopefully it will be again if we can get the DEA out of the thinking that it will be smoked.....lol
The most important cash crop of both MO and KY at the time of the Civil War was hemp. It still grows wild in much of MO.
Making legal distinctions between industrial and druggie hemp is undoubtedly a nightmare for officialdom, but the present law makes little sense.
But then there is no requirement I'm aware of that a law make sense.
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