Federal Courts

New York City is about to pay big time -- again! -- for forcing people accused of minor crimes, including public marijuana possession, to undergo humiliating strip-searches. This is the third time in nine years the city has had to pay out for this practice. Will NYC ever learn?

Bryan Epis is once again a medical marijuana martyr. This week, Epis, the first California medical grower convicted by the feds, was returned to federal prison to serve eight more years of a 10-year sentence imposed in 2002. He had been out on appeal, but his appeals have run out.

North Dakota farmers want to grow hemp. North Dakota has licensed them to grow hemp. But are they growing any hemp? No, and a new court decision means its likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

The Ohio Supreme Court has taken a stab at a largely yet-to-be-adjudicated area of Fourth Amendment law. In a ruling Tuesday, it held that police must obtain a search warrant to search an arrestee's cell phone.

Testilying -- the practice of police perjuring themselves to get an arrest or win a case -- is so prevalent in the NYPD that something has to be done, a federal judge complained this week.

Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) has reintroduced the Truth in Trials Act, which would allow medical marijuana providers prosecuted under federal law to introduce medical evidence during their trials.

The hemp industry is growing weary of waiting for the right to grow hemp in this country. It has filed lawsuits, it has a bill in Congress, and it is asking the Obama administration to treat hemp the same way it treats medical marijuana. But nothing is happening, so now, the movement is turning up the heat with civil disobedience.

Whether the Obama administration has ushered in a new era when it comes to the federal government and medical marijuana is arguable. One thing that isn't is that victims of Clinton and Bush era raids remain behind bars or facing prosecution. There are beginning to be moves afoot to right that lingering wrong.

Canadian cannabis entrepreneur and legalization advocate Marc Emery is just weeks away from a US federal prison term. But if US and Canadian authorities think they can shut him and his supporters up, they are in for a surprise.

There has been some concern that the US Supreme Court would let an Arizona school district get away with strip-searching a junior high school girl while looking for some ibuprofen tablets. It didn't.