"Supremacy" What?

So last week, I mentioned that if WA starts selling Mary Jane out of the State liquor stores, it's likely to get smacked with a suit under the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America). A little explanation might be in order here.

The Supremacy Clause is the bit of the Constitution whereby We the People declare federal law to be superior to state law. That is, where state law and federal law conflict, federal law wins. This is why, for example, Washington State can't declare its citizens exempt from the federal income tax.

Now, marijuana, whether or not WA legalizes it, will be illegal under federal law for the foreseeable future (read: "until Congress pulls its head out of the prohibitionist sand"). That, however, does not automatically mean that each state has to use its own laws and expend its own resources to enforce that illegality. The states are free to stand back and let the federal agencies handle federal law.

California cannot stand in the way when the DEA is arresting medical marijuana providers. However, it does not (under current law) have to help the DEA. You follow? This is why, if selling pot became legal in CA, the federal government would be on shaky ground in suing to try to make CA keep marijuana illegal: CA would effectively just be withdrawing its support from the "War on Drugs," where MJ is concerned, not engaging in any action that would bring it into conflict with federal law.

WA selling MJ out of its state-run liquor stores? That's another matter. That would have WA employees, and thus the state itself, in direct violation of federal law, and where state and federal laws conflict, the federal law wins.

You can't put a state in jail, but you (or, rather, the federal government) can sue it in federal court to get an injunction-- basically having a judge tell WA, "No, you're not allowed to do this." WA can appeal, but the appeal isn't likely to be very successful. On this score, the Supremacy Clause is pretty clear.

What happens if WA goes ahead and tries it anyway? Well, that's where you start getting terms like "crisis" popping up in the papers, and the president maybe sending in the national guard.