Marijuana License Residency Rules Beat Constitutional Challenge

A Michigan resident failed to convince a federal appeals court to deem cannabis licensing schemes that favor in-state applicants unlawful, establishing a circuit split over the role of the dormant Commerce Clause in state-legal marijuana markets.

The dormant Commerce Clause—which bars states from establishing laws that burden interstate commerce—doesn’t apply to cannabis licenses because marijuana is illegal under federal law, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a Friday opinion.

“When Congress has made the national marketplace illegal, the premises of the dormant Commerce Clause do not require the courts to leapfrog the political process ...