Posted on 01/23/2003 9:33:31 AM PST by hoosierskypilot
Edited on 04/13/2004 1:55:38 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Medical marijuana advocates Wednesday began a billboard campaign that features the 8-year-old daughter of a man in prison for cultivating pot.
On 30 billboards across California, Ashley Epis holds a sign that reads, "My Dad is not a criminal." Her father, Bryan Epis, is serving a 10-year federal sentence for growing cannabis for a Chico medical marijuana club.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
Since the question was posed to Roscoe, and hje agrees that it can be answered, you can just toddle along.
Sorry, but you have: to respond to "Is it your position that the courts are always correct as to the meaning of the Constitution?" with "They're correct more often than [somebody else]", as you did, is to agree that the question can be answered.
Now, when will you finally answer the question?
Is it your position that the courts are always correct
They're correct more often than sourceless, frothing-at-the-mouth fanatics
You didn't answer my question: Are they ALWAYS correct as to the meaning of the Constitution?
Beg that question.
Beg that question.
Asked and answered.
It is therefore not surprising that every court that has considered the question, both before and after the Supreme Court's decision in Lopez, has concluded that section 841(a)(1) represents a valid exercise of the commerce power. See, e.g., United States v. Edwards, ___ F.3d ___, ___, 1996 WL 621913, at *5 (D.C. Cir. Oct. 29, 1996); United States v. Kim, 94 F.3d 1247, 1249-50 (9th Cir. 1996); United States v. Bell, 90 F.3d 318, 321 (8th Cir. 1996); United States v. Lerebours, 87 F.3d 582, 584-85 (1st Cir. 1996); United States v. Wacker, 72 F.3d 1453, 1475 (10th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 136 (1996); United States v. Leshuk, 65 F.3d 1105, 1111-12 (4th Cir. 1995); United States v. Scales, 464 F.2d 371, 375 (6th Cir. 1972); Lopez, 459 F.2d at 953.Proyect attempts to distinguish this body of authority by arguing that, while growing marijuana for distribution has a significant impact on interstate commerce, growing marijuana only for personal consumption does not. Despite the fact that he was convicted of growing more than 100 marijuana plants, making it very unlikely that he personally intended to consume all of his crop, Proyect contends that no one may be convicted under a statute that fails to distinguish between the cultivation of marijuana for distribution and the cultivation of marijuana for personal consumption. This contention is without merit.
Nothing but.
Here's your dilemma:
If you answer "no", then you have to admit that Federal policy in this area violates your view of the Constitution. That opens you up to a whole set of questions about the WOD that you'd be forced to dodge.
If you answer "yes", then you have admitted to your left wing view of the Constitution as a living, breathing document. IOW, you'd have to admit to being a big government liberal.
So which is it?
Beg on.
The CSA rests on more than merely the Commerce Clause.
This title may be cited as the 'Controlled Substances Act'.
§ 801. Congressional findings and declarations: controlled substances.
The Congress makes the following findings and declarations:
- (1) Many of the drugs included within this subchapter have a useful and legitimate medical purpose and are necessary to maintain the health and general welfare of the American people.
- (2) The illegal importation, manufacture, distribution, and possession and improper use of controlled substances have a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the American people.
- (3) A major portion of the traffic in controlled substances flows through interstate and foreign commerce. Incidents of the traffic which are not an integral part of the interstate or foreign flow, such as manufacture, local distribution, and possession, nonetheless have a substantial and direct effect upon interstate commerce because -
- (A) after manufacture, many controlled substances are transported in interstate commerce,
- (B) controlled substances distributed locally usually have been transported in interstate commerce immediately before their distribution, and
- (C) controlled substances possessed commonly flow through interstate commerce immediately prior to such possession.
- (4) Local distribution and possession of controlled substances contribute to swelling the interstate traffic in such substances.
- (5) Controlled substances manufactured and distributed intrastate cannot be differentiated from controlled substances manufactured and distributed interstate. Thus, it is not feasible to distinguish, in terms of controls, between controlled substances manufactured and distributed interstate and controlled substances manufactured and distributed intrastate.
- (6) Federal control of the intrastate incidents of the traffic in controlled substances is essential to the effective control of the interstate incidents of such traffic.
See Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942)
The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 as related to wheat was to control the volume moving in interstate and foreign commerce in order to avoid surpluses and shortages and the consequent abnormally low or high wheat prices and obstructions to commerce.
Mr. Filburn harvested an excess of 239 bushels of wheat, thereby triggering a penalty of 49 cents per bushel, which he refused to pay.
"Appellee says that this is a regulation of production and consumption of wheat. Such activities are, he urges, beyond the reach of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause, since they are local in character, and their effects upon interstate commerce are at most "indirect." In answer the Government argues that the statute regulates neither production nor consumption, but only marketing; and, in the alternative, that if the Act does go beyond the regulation of marketing it is sustainable as a "necessary and proper"[fn15] implementation of the power of Congress over interstate commerce.
As part of this decision was this precedent:
"The commerce power is not confined in its exercise to the regulation of commerce among the states. It extends to those activities intrastate which so affect interstate commerce, or the exertion of the power of Congress over it, as to make regulation of them appropriate means to the attainment of a legitimate end, the effective execution of the granted power to regulate interstate commerce. . . . The power of Congress over interstate commerce is plenary and complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations other than are prescribed in the Constitution. . . . It follows that no form of state activity can constitutionally thwart the regulatory power granted by the commerce clause to Congress. Hence the reach of that power extends to those intrastate activities which in a substantial way interfere with or obstruct the exercise of the granted power." United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., 315 U.S. 110, 119.
Not that this will convince you.
Would this convince you?
"I write separately only to express my view that the very notion of a ‘substantial effects’ test under the Commerce Clause is inconsistent with the original understanding of Congress’ powers and with this Court’s early Commerce Clause cases. By continuing to apply this rootless and malleable standard, however circumscribed, the Court has encouraged the Federal Government to persist in its view that the Commerce Clause has virtually no limits. Until this Court replaces its existing Commerce Clause jurisprudence with a standard more consistent with the original understanding, we will continue to see Congress appropriating state police powers under the guise of regulating commerce."
-Justice Clarence Thomas
Respondents therefore err in arguing (Br. 39-41) that the CSA cannot constitutionally be applied to their intrastate drug distribution for medical purposes because the government has not shown that particular activity to substantially affect interstate commerce. "[W]here a general regulatory statute bears a substantial relation to commerce, the de minimis character of individual instances arising under that statute is of no consequence." Lopez, 514 U.S. at 558 (emphasis and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Perez v. United States, 402 U.S. 146, 154 (1971); Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U.S. 183, 192 (1968); United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 120-121 (1941). For example, in Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), the Court upheld federal regulation of wheat grown and consumed on a family farm in order to control the volume of wheat moving in interstate and foreign commerce. See Lopez, 514 U.S. at 559-561; Morrison, 529 U.S. at 610-611.Respondents argue (Br. 41 n.35) that Wickard is inapposite because, unlike the wheat at issue in Wickard, "there is no federal scheme of price maintenance" for marijuana affected by respondents' intrastate activities. The intrastate distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, however, substantially affects the interstate market for marijuana by increasing the drug's demand and supply, and by interfering with the CSA's purpose to establish a national and uniform closed system to prevent the abuse and diversion of illegal drugs. See 21 U.S.C. 801(4) (finding that "[l]ocal distribution and possession of controlled substances contribute to swelling the interstate traffic in such substances."); 21 U.S.C. 801(6) (finding that "[f]ederal control of the intrastate incidents of the traffic in controlled substances is essential to the effective control of the interstate incidents of such traffic").14 As the district court explained in rejecting respondents' Commerce Clause challenge, "[m]edical marijuana may be grown locally, or out of the state or country, and there is nothing in the nature of medical marijuana that limits it to intrastate cultivation. Similarly, it may be transported across state lines and consumed across state lines.
This title may be cited as the 'Controlled Substances Act'.
§ 801. Congressional findings and declarations: controlled substances.
The Congress makes the following findings and declarations:
- (1) Many of the drugs included within this subchapter have a useful and legitimate medical purpose and are necessary to maintain the health and general welfare of the American people.
- (2) The illegal importation, manufacture, distribution, and possession and improper use of controlled substances have a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the American people.
- (3) A major portion of the traffic in controlled substances flows through interstate and foreign commerce. Incidents of the traffic which are not an integral part of the interstate or foreign flow, such as manufacture, local distribution, and possession, nonetheless have a substantial and direct effect upon interstate commerce because -
- (A) after manufacture, many controlled substances are transported in interstate commerce,
- (B) controlled substances distributed locally usually have been transported in interstate commerce immediately before their distribution, and
- (C) controlled substances possessed commonly flow through interstate commerce immediately prior to such possession.
- (4) Local distribution and possession of controlled substances contribute to swelling the interstate traffic in such substances.
- (5) Controlled substances manufactured and distributed intrastate cannot be differentiated from controlled substances manufactured and distributed interstate. Thus, it is not feasible to distinguish, in terms of controls, between controlled substances manufactured and distributed interstate and controlled substances manufactured and distributed intrastate.
- (6) Federal control of the intrastate incidents of the traffic in controlled substances is essential to the effective control of the interstate incidents of such traffic.
- (7) The United States is a party to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, and other international conventions designed to establish effective control over international and domestic traffic in controlled substances.
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