By Lawrence Hurley
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration asked the U.S.
Supreme Court on Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma and
Nebraska seeking to block Colorado's voter-approved law legalizing
recreational marijuana use by adults.
In
their challenge to Colorado's law, filed in December 2014, Nebraska and
Oklahoma said marijuana is being smuggled across their borders and that
drugs threaten the health and safety of children.
Nebraska
and Oklahoma noted that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and
said Colorado has created "a dangerous gap" in the federal drug control
system.
Oklahoma
and Nebraska's lawsuit was filed under a rarely used Supreme Court
process, known as "original jurisdiction," in which the justices hear
disputes between states that have not first been handled by lower
courts.
U.S.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said in court papers filed on
Wednesday that the case was not the type of dispute the court would
normally hear.
"Entertaining
the type of dispute here - essentially that one state's laws make it
more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in
another state - would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion
of this court's original jurisdiction," Verrilli said.
The
Obama administration has allowed states to experiment with marijuana
legalization even though the drug remains illegal under federal law.
Colorado
voters legalized recreational marijuana use in 2012. Washington state
also voted the same year to legalize recreational marijuana use by
adults. Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia followed suit in
2014.
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