Gonzales v. Raich Flashcards
Facts (1)
CA residents Angel Raich and Diane Monson qualified for medical marijuana
•Grew small amounts of marijuana in their yards in compliance with state law
•NEVER intended that marijauana for anything other than their own consumption
At the time, 9 states allowed medicinal marijuana (none had legalized)
Now 40 states have loosened restrictions
Facts (2)
Controlled Substances Act of 1970
•Start of the “war on drugs”
•Attempt to shut down the black market of drug sales
When states first legalized medicinal marijuana
•President Clinton’s Justice Department declined to prosecute people like Raich and Monson
•So did Obama and Trump
George W. Bush? Not so much
•Alberto Gonzalez = Bush’s attorney general
Issue
Whether the Commerce Clause, as supplemented by the Necessary and Proper Clause, permits Congress to prohibit the local cultivation and use of marijuana
Holding
Held 6-3 (Stevens writing) YES because local marijuana cultivation, even if not intended for sale, affects the national (black) market for marijuana
•O’Connor’s dissent cannot distinguish this case from Lopez
Stevens’ logic (if some can…)
If Congress can regulate something in general, it can regulate ALL of that activity
•“We have never required Congress to legislate with scientific exactitude. When Congress decides that the “‘total incidence’” of a practice poses a threat to a national market, it may regulate the entire class….
Even specific instances that don’t fit the broader pattern
•In this vein, we have reiterated that when “‘a general regulatory statute bears a substantial relation to commerce, the de minimise character of individual instances arising under that statute is of no consequence.’”Lopez.
Wickard analogy (Growing = Intrastate and not commercial)
Growing a product for home consumption
•Is intrastate and is not commercial
The product is part of a larger market in which Congress has identified a problem
Congress can regulate it “if it concludes that failure to regulate that class of activity would undercut the regulation of the interstate market in that commodity”
Court’s job is merely to evaluate whether Congress had a rational basis to conclude that regulating that local activity
Home consumption affects demand
•It is OK for Congress to target marijuana grown for home because “the likelihood that the high demand in the interstate market will draw such marijuana into that market”
Distinguishing Wickard
1.The Agricultural Adjustment Act, unlike the CSA, exempted small farming operations
•Raich and Monson are not growing lots of weed
2.Roscoe Filburn ran a commercial farm, so his home consumption was “quintessential economic activity”
3.TheWickardrecord made it clear that the aggregate production of wheat for use on farms had a significant impact on market prices.
•Congress did its homework, proving it had a rational basis for targeted home consumption of wheat
Stevens’ response to Wickard exemption
1.The Agricultural Adjustment Act, unlike the CSA, exempted small farming operations
•Congress COULD have regulated small farms
2.Roscoe Filburn ran a commercial farm
•Doesn’t matter because the activity regulated was noncommercial
3.TheWickardrecord made it clear
•Congress did its homework HERE too
Analogy to Lopez (and Morrison) (Economics + Criminal Statues)
Raich says CSA is similar to GFSZA: criminal statutes that (in this instance) has nothing to do with economics
•Because this marijuana will not be bought or sold
- Stevens says
- Economics is “the production, distribution, and consumption of commodities”
- “Prohibiting the intrastate possession or manufacture of an article of commerce is a rational (and commonly utilized) means of regulating commerce in that product”
The analogy to Lopez (and Morrison) (2) - regulating local cultivation + Isolated actions
Raich says regulating local cultivation is not an essential part of a larger regulatory scheme
•Monson and Raich’s activities have been “isolated by the State of California, and [are] policed by the State of California,” and thus remain “entirely separated from the market.”
Stevens says: even if Monson and Raich would never sell pot, others might
•“The notion that California law has surgically excised a discrete activity that is hermetically sealed off from the larger interstate marijuana market is a dubious proposition, and, more importantly, one that Congress could have rationally rejected….”
O’Connor dissent (1) (I don’t like drugs)
- I don’t like drugs, but I hate taking power away from state legislatures even more
- We enforce the “outer limits” of Congress’ Commerce Clause authority not for their own sake, but to protect historic spheres of state sovereignty from excessive federal encroachment and thereby to maintain the distribution of power fundamental to our federalist system of government. One of federalism’s chief virtues, of course, is that it promotes innovation by allowing for the possibility that “a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann(1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).
O’Connor dissent (sweap)
“The Court’s definition of economic activity is breathtaking.”
•“When an interstate market for a commodity exists, regulating the intrastate manufacture or possession of that commodity is constitutional either because that intrastate activity is itself economic, or because regulating it is a rational part of regulating its market.”
“Threatens to sweep all of productive human activity into federal regulatory reach.”
•Is she right or is this no different than Wickard?
Understanding what happened in Wickard
“Wickarddid not hold or imply that small-scale production of commodities is always economic, and automatically within Congress’ reach.”
•AAA regulated how much wheat could be bought and sold (buying and selling = commerce)
Roscoe Filburn was not trying to just live off the grid
•Ran a commercial farm
Growing wheat was a strategic use of economic resources
•Sell as much wheat as allowed = more $$
•Save purchasing wheat = save $$
Wickard was OK
“When Filburn planted the wheat at issue inWickard, the statute exempted plantings less than 200 bushels (about six tons), and when he harvested his wheat it exempted plantings less than six acres.Wickard, then, did not extend Commerce Clause authority to something as modest as the home cook’s herb garden.”
•So the question is: are Raich and Monson closer to the home cook’s herb garden or Filburn’s economic strategy?
Seems closer to herb garden
•Pun kind of intended
“The homegrown cultivation and personal possession and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has no apparent commercial character. Everyone agrees that the marijuana at issue in this case was never in the stream of commerce, and neither were the supplies for growing it.”
