A federal appeals court will hear arguments in early October in a Florida lawsuit challenging federal prohibitions on medical-marijuana patients buying and possessing guns, according to a notice filed Tuesday.
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments during the week of Oct. 2 in the lawsuit, which was filed last year by then-Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and other plaintiffs.
The notice did not give a specific date for the arguments, which will be held in Jacksonville.
The plaintiffs have alleged that the prohibitions on medical-marijuana patients having guns violate Second Amendment rights. Federal laws bar certain people from buying and possessing guns, including people who use drugs illegally.
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While Florida allows use of medical marijuana after passage of a 2016 constitutional amendment, marijuana remains illegal under federal law. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, siding with the Justice Department, dismissed the lawsuit in November and pointed to the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which generally leads to federal laws trumping state laws.
“In 2016, Florida stopped criminalizing the medical use of marijuana. Many people refer to this change as Florida’s ‘legalizing’ medical marijuana, but Florida did no such thing. It couldn’t. ‘Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, state laws cannot permit what federal law prohibits,’ and federal law still prohibits possession of marijuana — for medical purposes or otherwise,” Winsor wrote, partially quoting a legal precedent.
The plaintiffs took the case to the Atlanta-based appeals court after Winsor’s ruling.
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