Status of Nebraska and Oklahoma v Colorado cannabis case

Status :

No. 22O144 ORG Title: Nebraska and Oklahoma, Plaintiffs v. Colorado Docketed: December 22, 2014 ~~~Date~~~  ~~~~~~~Proceedings  and  Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dec 18 2014 Motion for leave to file a bill of complaint filed. Feb 10 2015 Order extending time to file response to the bill of complaint to and including March 27, 2015 Feb 19 2015 Brief amici curiae of All Nine Former Administrators of Drug Enforcement filed. Mar 27 2015 Brief amicus curiae of Washington and Oregon filed. Mar 27 2015 Brief of respondent Colorado in opposition filed. Apr 3 2015 Reply of plaintiffs Nebraska and Oklahoma filed. Apr 15 2015 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of May 1, 2015. May 4 2015 The Solicitor General is invited to file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States. Dec 16 2015 Brief amicus curiae of United States filed. Jan 5 2016 Supplemental brief of petitioners Nebraska and Oklahoma filed. (Distributed) Jan 6 2016 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 22, 2016. Feb 8 2016 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of February 19, 2016. Feb 29 2016 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of March 4, 2016.

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~~Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	~~~~~~~Address~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	~~Phone~~~
Attorneys for Plaintiff:
Ryan Stanley Post	Assisstant Attorney General	(402) 471-2682
Counsel of Record	2115 State Capitol
	PO Box 98920
	Lincoln, NE  68509
Party name: Nebraska
Patrick R. Wyrick	Solicitor General	(405) 522-4448
	Office of the Attorney General
	313 NE 21st Street
	Oklahoma City, OK  73105
Party name: Oklahoma
Attorneys for Respondent:
Frederick R. Yarger	Solicitor General	(720) 508-6000
Counsel of Record	Office of the Attorney General
	1300 Broadway, 10th Floor
	Denver, CO  80203
Party name: Colorado
Other:
Mark A. Perry	Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP	(202) 955-8500
	1050 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
	Washington, DC  20036
Party name: All Nine Former Administrators of Drug Enforcement
Noah Guzzo Purcell	Solicitor General	(206)-359-3301
	PO Box 40100
	Olympia, WA  98504
Party name: Washington and Oregon
Donald B. Verrilli Jr.	Solicitor General	(202) 514-2217
	United States Department of Justice
	950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
	Washington, DC  20530-0001
Party name: United States Listed below is an excerpt from a December 2014,article from Michael Dorf: General of Nebraska and Oklahoma filed a lawsuit on behalf of their respective states, naming the state of Colorado as the defendant. Nebraska and Oklahoma allege that Colorado’s legalization of marijuana undermines their ability to maintain their own prohibitions of marijuana because Colorado takes inadequate measures to prevent legal intrastate marijuana from crossing state borders, where it enters the illegal market. Taking advantage of a provision of the Constitution covering cases “in which a State shall be Party,” Nebraska and Oklahoma filed their complaint in the Supreme Court of the United States. Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado raises a number of important procedural and substantive questions, including these: Does Colorado’s marijuana legalization violate federal law or does it merely fail to enforcefederal law? And given the essential role that the federal marijuana prohibition plays in the plaintiff states’ case, should the lawsuit be dismissed on the ground that their real complaint lies with the federal government, not Colorado? The case also smacks of political irony. The Attorneys General who brought this lawsuit—Jon Bruning of Nebraska and Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma—are both ideologically conservative Republicans. Yet their case should ultimately fail because it contravenes conservative Supreme Court precedents regarding federalism. Their best hope of success would be to drop this suit and re-file an action against the federal government. Yet to have any hope of success in that endeavor, they would need to rely on an important liberal Supreme Court precedent about standing and global warming.