Search Results for: marijuana

The U.S. Supreme Court last week issued its first ruling against coronavirus containment measures, invoking the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion to enjoin an executive order by New York’s governor limiting attendance at religious services to 10 or 25 persons in areas classified as having a high risk for infections. The Court’s [...]

The New Jersey Assembly canceled a vote on a bill to decriminalize marijuana Monday after a Senate Amendment included a provision that also decreased the penalties for psilocybin, or magic mushrooms. The debate over the marijuana decriminalization bill comes after a decisive vote by New Jersey residents in favor of legalizing marijuana. Earlier this month, [...]

Voters in Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon and South Dakota passed statewide ballot measures favoring marijuana legalization Tuesday. Arizona voters passed Arizona Proposition 207, which legalizes the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and over. Under this new legislation, adults will be able to purchase no more than one ounce of marijuana at [...]

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Monday that reforms Michigan’s criminal expungement laws by allowing people with low-level marijuana convictions to have their records expunged. She also approved other “clean slate” criminal justice reform bills that will expand record expungement for other convictions, including certain traffic offenses. Whitmer signed House Bills 4980, 4981, 4982, 4983, [...]

Breonna Taylor’s killing is not only a tragedy, but a great injustice. The Kentucky Attorney General, despite having the power to contribute to repairing this unconscionable wrong, has failed. The Kentucky attorney general announced that no criminal charges will be filed for Breonna Taylor’s death against the individual officers who were responsible. Beyond the failure [...]

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed an Executive Order on Thursday granting full and unconditional pardons to almost 3000 Coloradans with past convictions for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. The order highlighted a brief history on the legality of marijuana in the state of Colorado: first, discussing the 2012 ballot measure Amendment 64, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that a Pittsburgh police officer who slammed an unarmed Black teen into a wall is not entitled to qualified immunity. The case arose in 2013 when the El brothers were stopped by Pittsburgh Police Lieutenant Reyne Kacsuta outside of a convenience store on the [...]

Two US Department of Justice (DOJ) officials delivered indicting congressional testimony Wednesday, accusing political appointees of intervening in criminal and antitrust cases to serve the personal interests of President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr. Assistant US Attorney Aaron Zelinsky, who previously served as a prosecutor on the Russia investigation, testified to the House Judiciary Committee that [...]

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill into law Thursday that decriminalizes personal marijuana possession. The bill, SB 2, assigns a civil rather than criminal penalty for simple marijuana possession. SB 2 presumes marijuana possession in measurements of an ounce or less as simple possession. A summary of the bill as enacted by the governor’s [...]

Virginia after Governor Ralph Northam signed numerous landmark bills into law Sunday, including multiple criminal justice reform bills. House Bill 972 decriminalizes simple possession of marijuana and creates a $25 civil penalty but removes the current criminal offense classification as a misdemeanor. This will take effect July 1 if the General Assembly agrees to technical amendments [...]