A public interest law firm representing a man who says federal law unconstitutionally infringed on his property rights has joined the chorus of voices urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case challenging a key underpinning of federal marijuana prohibition.
In an amicus brief filed with the court on Wednesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation—representing Florida resident Michael Colosi—said their client’s property dispute “exemplifies” how the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution has been misinterpreted and misapplied, giving the federal government unsanctioned authority over intrastate commerce.
In Colosi’s case, he was told by his local government that, in order to build a home on a specific property in Charlotte County, he needed to pay $200,000 development fee because a bird species known as the Florida scrub-jay could someday populate the area. That’s because the federal government classifies the species as “threatened.”
“Colosi sued, alleging that the federal government has no authority to regulate an intrastate species without a direct connection to interstate commerce,” the brief says. “Colosi and Petitioners face the same dilemma: they are injured by federal regulation of activities the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to regulate.”
To that point, the Massachusetts-based marijuana businesses that
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