Ohio’s Franklin County Court of Common Pleas on Friday granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of a medical marijuana cultivator suing the Ohio Department of Commerce (DOC) over minority licensing quotas.

Greenleaf Gardens sued the Ohio DOC over R.C. § 3796.09(C), which called for 15 percent of the cultivator licenses to go to “one of the following economically disadvantaged groups: Blacks or African Americans. American Indians. Hispanics or Latinos, and Asians.”

Greenleaf Gardens received a high enough final score to qualify for one of the 12 licenses issued by the Ohio DOC. The Ohio DOC, however, denied Greenleaf Gardens the license. Instead, two licenses were granted to lower scoring companies: Parma Wellness and Harvest Grows.

Parma Wellness and Harvest Grows received licenses because of R.C. § 3796.09(C). Greenleaf Gardens argued this was unconstitutional under 42 USC § 1983 and Article 1 Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution.

The court agreed.

[T]he Court finds Plaintiff has met its burden by showing the legislature failed to compile and review enough evidence related to the medical marijuana industry to support the finding of a strong basis in evidence for a compelling government interest to exist. … Therefore, the Court finds R.C. § 3796.09(C) is unconstitutional on its face pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Article 1, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution.

The court then ordered the entirety of R.C. § 3796.09(C) to be stricken from R.C. § 3796.09. The intent of the legislation, according to the court, was to provide medical marijuana to ill Ohioans, and striking section C would not prevent this aim.