Skip to main content

‘preemption’

New Jersey Court Orders Employer to Reimburse Injured Employee for Cost of Medical Marijuana

Feb. 17, 2020—In January 2020, a New Jersey state court ordered an employer to cover the costs of an injured employee’s medical marijuana. The full 31 page decision in Hager v. M&K Construction can be found here. The New Jersey court ruling recognizes a split among state courts concerning whether state agencies may require employers to cover...

Read more


Nebraska Attorney General Gives the State Some Bad Legal Advice Concerning Marijuana Legalization

Aug. 4, 2019—On August 1, Nebraska Attorney General Douglas Peterson gave the state some bad legal advice concerning proposed medical marijuana legislation (the Medical Cannabis Act). In response to a request from a state senator, he concluded that the MCA would be preempted by the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and thus null and void. The AG’s full...

Read more


UPDATE: Maine Supreme Court Holds State Worker Compensation Law Preempted

Jun. 28, 2018—Last week the Maine Supreme Court issued its decision in Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers. For the full opinion, see here. I blogged about the case back in October: see Cases to Watch: Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers and Workers’ Compensation. In this post, I’ll briefly describe the court’s recent holding and then provide a few thoughts...

Read more


Two Interesting Developments in Maryland’s Medical Marijuana Law

Apr. 12, 2018—The Maryland legislature just passed a bill amending the state’s medical marijuana law. The Governor is expected to sign the legislation, which can be viewed here. Two particular changes struck me as noteworthy: 1. First, the bill adopts new—and carefully designed—measures to address racial disparities in the state-licensed commercial marijuana industry. As I discuss in...

Read more


DOJ Suit Challenging California Sanctuary Laws Could Have Ramifications for State Marijuana Reforms as Well

Mar. 8, 2018—On March 6 the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit challenging California’s sanctuary state policies as preempted. Those sanctuary policies are designed to mitigate state concerns over the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The DOJ’s Brief in Support of its Motion for a Preliminary Injunction provides a useful summary of the challenged state laws...

Read more


Federal District Court Finds Connecticut Law Barring Employment Discrimination Against Medical Marijuana Users is NOT preempted

Aug. 15, 2017—The decision in Noffsinger v. SSC Niantic Operating Co., LLC (Dist. Conn. 2017), is significant because it departs from a handful of earlier decisions that have found or at least assumed state employment protections were preempted. Those decisions are discussed on pages 672-81 of the book. Even though I largely agree with the result in...

Read more


Could the States Do Anything to Blunt the Impact of a Federal Crackdown?

Aug. 9, 2017—I just returned from the NCSL annual meeting in Boston, where I participated on a Marijuana Federalism panel with Representative Roger Goodman (WA state house) and John Hudak (Brookings). A short recap of the panel can be found here . Consistent with recent reports, all the panelists agreed the Trump Administration is unlikely to crack...

Read more