A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) over allegations from New Mexico marijuana businesses that claimed the agency unconstitutionally seized state-legal cannabis products and detained industry workers.
More than a year after CBP moved to dismiss the suit, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico issued an opinion and order on Monday siding with the agency, rejecting all four claims of constitutional violations under the Fifth and Tenth Amendment.
Judge Kenneth Gonzales said the eight New Mexico marijuana businesses who jointly sued CBP over the searches and property seizures in 2024 failed to establish procedural due process violations because those protections do not apply to “property that is contraband per se,” which includes cannabis because “Congress has decreed explicitly that Schedule I controlled substances are ‘deemed contraband and seized and summarily forfeited to the United States.’”
“Because Plaintiffs lacked a cognizable property interest in the marijuana products, they were not entitled to post-forfeiture notice or a hearing to challenge the seizure of those products,” the order states, adding that marijuana “remains contraband under federal law notwithstanding evolving enforcement policies or prospective regulatory changes.”
In an earlier filing, CBP put emphasis on
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