State Courts

The Oregon Court of Appeals has rejected an employer's firing of a medical marijuana patient who did not use on the job, saying it violates state anti-discrimination laws.

In January, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers could fire employees who tested positive for marijuana even if they were legal patients under California law. Now, a bill that would undo that ruling has passed the state Assembly.

A California appeals court has declared a 2004 law setting limits on the amount of marijuana patients may possess unconstitutional because it seeks to amend a voter initiative, and only the voters can do that.

Regina McKnight was the first woman in South Carolina charged with murder for having a stillborn child after using drugs while pregnant. Now, after almost a decade behind bars, the state Supreme Court has overturned her guilty verdict, saying she had poor legal representation and was the victim of shoddy science.

The Vermont Supreme Court has thrown a marijuana conviction based on a warrantless overflight by a military helicopter, saying the state constitution's privacy provisions protect residents and "the airspace above their homes and property."

For more than 30 years, Alaska's courts have held that the state constitution's privacy provisions protect citizens who want to smoke and possess small amounts of marijuana in their homes. Last week, the Alaska Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the state's latest effort to undo the status quo.

The black community in Lima, Ohio, cried for justice after a SWAT team member killed Tarika Wilson and wounded her infant son during a raid in January. Those cries are unlikely to be quieted now as local authorities charged the police shooter with a pair of misdemeanors for the killing. He faces a maximum of eight months in jail.

The drug czar's office may be pushing the random drug testing of high school students, but it isn't going to happen in Washington state. The state Supreme Court last week ruled such testing unconstitutional.

Even if an officer smells the odor of burning weed coming out of your vehicle, that's not enough for him to arrest or search you -- at least in Saskatchewan. That's what the provincial Court of Appeals ruled recently, and the Crown isn't going to appeal that decision.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that employers may fire medical marijuana users. The backlash is just getting underway.