The Trump administration is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit from a Washington, D.C. hemp business challenging the federal government over a congressional budget restriction that prevents local officials from establishing and regulating a retail marijuana market.
About three months after Capitol Hemp filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department on Monday submitted a motion requesting dismissal of the case, largely on procedural grounds.
The cannabis company is seeking a declaration from a federal judge that the congressional budget rider doesn’t stand in the way of D.C. adopting legislation to regulate hemp. But DOJ argued that the company lacks standing to pursue the litigation, asserting that the “core of this suit” against the government “takes circuitous aim at federal law.”
“Plaintiff asserts that provisions of federal appropriations law are ambiguous and require interpretation by this Court, and this ambiguity, it claims, is the proximate cause of two injuries, namely, a pending civil action against them, and confusion on the part of the District,” the motion, signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, says. “Neither of these alleged harms is sufficient to establish standing in this suit, however. Nor can these harms
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