Wednesday, October 20, 2010

More on Californias Pot Law

An interesting question from Radley Balko concerning the conflict between federal law and Californias Prop 19:

It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out in the courts. Would a California state judge hold Baca liable for deliberately and knowingly breaking California state law? Would Holder’s Justice Department defend him? Let’s say a sheriff like Baca arrests a Californian for an act that’s a violation of federal law, but legal under state law. Seems possible that with the right DA, someone like Baca could be convicted in state court for civil rights violations (or whatever it’s called under California law), while the arrestee could still be convicted for violating federal law. Then, maybe Baca protects himself by always bringing a federal agent along to perform the actual arrest.

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