Shivangi Prakash-
The United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Colorado Marijuana business owners this week, not because they didn’t have a compelling case, but because they did.
Justice Clarence Thomas decided to write a statement about the court’s denial of the petition for a writ of certiorari.
Thomas concluded, “A prohibition on intrastate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper,”
Standing Akimbo Medical Dispensary’s owners were contesting a part of the Federal Tax Code that limits tax deductions for businesses that deal in controlled substances that are illegal under Federal law.
Marijuana firms can only deduct the cost of commodities sold from their taxable income under Federal Rules, not other company expenses like rent, utilities, or staff wages.
The business owners argued that this makes the tax unconstitutional.
Thomas wrote in a footnote that their argument “Implicates several difficult questions, including the differences between ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ taxes and how to interpret the Sixteenth Amendment.” Thomas said he agreed with the Court’s decision not to delve into these questions.
The Sixteenth Amendment, which introduced the income tax, isn’t the constitutional amendment that gives the most information on this issue.
The Eighteenth Amendment prohibits the manufacturing, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors at the Federal level.
Justice Thomas has recently pointed out that this seemingly closed structure is actually filled with loopholes. Thirty-six states have legalised medical marijuana, while 18 have legalised recreational marijuana. In 2009, Congress permitted the government of Washington, D.C. to decriminalise medical marijuana through a local ordinance.
Furthermore, since 2015, Congress has forbidden the Department of Justice from spending monies to hinder states from enacting their own medical Marijuana laws.
“The federal government’s current approach to marijuana bears little resemblance to the watertight nationwide prohibition that a closely divided Court found necessary to justify the Government’s blanket prohibition in Raich,” Justice Thomas wrote.
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