State Courts

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan ?sued the cities of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia today?, claiming their ordinances banning medical marijuana are in direct violation of the 2008 ?Michigan Medical Marihuana Act?.

Patients, doctors and dispensaries seeking legal help navigating Arizona's new medical marijuana law could find themselves up the creek without a lawyer. The ethics counsel for the State Bar of Arizona said it is a violation of the rules laid out by the Arizona Supreme Court for attorneys to help clients break federal laws prohibiting selling or possessing marijuana.

The Los Angeles City Council will consider amending its medical marijuana ordinance because one of its provisions unexpectedly disqualified dozens of dispensaries from continuing operations.

The rejection of nearly 2,000 medical marijuana applications due to a new health department policy has generated anger among patients and doctors no longer allowed to write recommendations. A representative of the advocacy group Sensible Colorado, which took part in a successful court challenge against the department last year, confirms that the organization is considering similar action this time around.

Oakland County Sheriff's deputies used phony Michigan medical marijuana cards -- created on a county computer -- to trick state-approved medical marijuana providers into selling the drug to the police. Days after the drug buys, county narcotics agents raided two medical marijuana dispensaries. Defense attorneys for more than two dozen people arrested in the raids are crying foul, saying their clients were trapped into lawbreaking while trying to stay within the state law.

Buoyed by signs and words of support from several hundred chanting demonstrators, 10 people appeared in court Thursday to be assigned future dates to challenge multiple charges of delivery of manufactured medical marijuana. All were arrested and charged following raids and seizures by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Narcotics Enforcement Team at a medical marijuana clinic and a compassion club and its related dispensary. A Michigan Court of Appeals judge last month urged lawmakers to clarify the state's medical marijuana law, saying the “inartfully drafted” measure has resulted in confusion and arrests that some have called an enforcement nightmare.

It only applies to one landlord, but it could indicate what future cases hold. A judge barred Los Angeles city attorneys from taking action against a landlord of a medical marijuana dispensary who is currently part of a lawsuit challenging the city's medical marijuana ordinance.

Tennesseans, in a slow trickle, have requested and gotten refunds from the state since the Tennessee Supreme Court struck down the so-called crack tax law in 2009. The state Department of Revenue has refunded $3.7 million to 161 people, but 2,772 people who paid the tax have not gotten any money back. "Most of them just don't know, and the state doesn't have any intention of letting them know, that they're eligible for a full refund," said Columbia attorney John Colley, who is leading a class-action lawsuit that would allow attorneys to identify and notify all people who paid the tax while it was still on the books.

The City of Pawtucket has agreed to apologize to one of its employees and to pay her legal fees after she sued over its drug testing policy. Random testing is not allowed, the ACLU said in a news release. Sinapi said that the ACLU will take action against other employers if they require testing not approved by state law.