Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Dismissal of Josephine County Cannabis Lawsuit

Judge Mark D. Clarke ruled the County had a lack of standing and a lack of any “justiciable case or controversy”

Josephine County’s frivolous lawsuit against the State of Oregon and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has hit a major roadblock. Federal Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke’s report and recommendation was sent to the district judge on August 30, 2018 and says, unequivocally, that the case should be dismissed. The dismissal recommendation comes following a motion by the defendants–the state of Oregon–in the case.

The lawsuit was filed in a last ditch effort to subvert the rights of medical and recreational cannabis growers in the rural Southern Oregon county and was expected to go nowhere by anyone with a modicum of legal understanding.  It was intended to empower the county by recognizing federal jurisdiction over the state’s legal authority concerning cannabis by citing the Controlled Substances Act as the prevailing law regarding marijuana. Under the obsolete and archaic federal law, cannabis is listed as a drug that is as addictive and heroin and having no recognized medical use.

Even in the face of an inevitable loss, the supremely ignorant Josephine County commissioners, and equally ignorant county counsel Wally Hicks, pushed forward with their suit. The result was a complete rebuke of their efforts by the federal magistrate judge who wrote in his report:

“… Josephine County lacks standing to sue the state in federal court. Additionally, there is no justiciable case or controversy for the Court to resolve. Therefore the defendant’s motion should be granted and this case should be dismissed.

… federal courts are precluded from considering claims for equitable relief, including injunctions or declaratory judgments, unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that the threat of future injury is both real and immediate, not conjectural or hypothetical.”

Basically what the judge is saying, and what many other knowledgeable people already knew, is that Josephine County cannot show that they have suffered any “injury” in the case or that they have any case to adjudicate in any way. This case is an example of the the worst frivolity. It was an enormous waste of taxpayers money in one of the state’s poorest counties. It’s hard to get more frivolous than that.

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