President Donald Trump reportedly told Senate Republicans Wednesday to “go nuclear” if that’s what it took to get his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, confirmed for a seat on the high court. If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ala., does choose the nuclear route, party members could head straight to a floor vote immediately following his concession hearings, which could require the conservative 10 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge to uproot from his cannabis-friendly town of Boulder, Colorado, to a permanent residence in Washington, D.C. within six weeks’ time, according to CNN.
Since Gorsuch is a native Coloradan, some folks would assume the longtime judge may be 4/20-friendly. After all, Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational use of marijuana for adults, and Gorsuch, who also teaches at the University of Colorado Law School, was the first judge to ever take on cases surrounding the plant following full legalization.
However, it’s not very clear where Gorsuch stands on legal marijuana. The judge hasn’t made any outright statements condemning marijuana or sharing his views on the plant, but he has ruled against cannabis in the past.
In 2010, Gorsuch ruled against a couple who were on trial on charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. The duo claimed that their offense should have been dismissed on religious grounds, but Gorsuch ruled against them, claiming that the couple’s “professed beliefs are not religious but secular,” according to court documents, adding that the couple didn’t “sincerely hold the religious beliefs they claim to hold, but instead seek to use the cover of religion to pursue secular drug trafficking activities.”
In 2013, Gorsuch ruled in favor of Colorado police officer John Harris, who was accused of fatally tasering a man who was attempting to resist a marijuana arrest. In Gorsuch’s final ruling, he said, “Illegal processing and manufacturing of marijuana may not be inherently violent crimes but … they were felonies under Colorado law at the time of the incident. And Officer Harris testified, without rebuttal, that he had been trained that people who grow marijuana illegally tend to be armed and ready to use force to protect themselves and their unlawful investments.”
Gorsuch ruled against marijuana again in 2015 after owners of a Colorado dispensary refused to hand over tax data to the Internal Revenue Service over fears of incriminating themselves due to marijuana’s federal ban.
“Yes, the Fifth Amendment normally shields individuals from having to admit to criminal activity,” Gorsuch explained in his final judgment. “But, the IRS argued, because DOJ’s memoranda generally instruct federal prosecutors not to prosecute cases like this one, the petitioners should be forced to divulge the requested information anyway. So it is the government simultaneously urged the court to take seriously its claim that the petitioners are violating federal criminal law and to discount the possibility that it would enforce federal criminal law.”
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