Daily Humor: Is there a First Amendment Challenge to the Marijuana Mandate?

Professor Ruthann Robson, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law

In his satirical column for the New Yorker, humorist Andy Borowitz (pictured below) writes:

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—President Obama is about to issue an executive order that would force all Americans to purchase a monthly supply of marijuana, the Fox News Channel reported today.

 

Borowitz's "reports" of fake news have been mistaken for true, perhaps because they often have a basis, albeit quite slanted, in reality.  For example, this report springboards from President Obama's remarks quoted in a lengthy profile by David Remnick in The New Yorker.  (This is not satirical and is definitely worth a read).

It also springboards from the discourse surrounding the ACA ("Obamacare") which the Court upheld as constitutional in NFIB v. Sebelius.

ConLawProfs looking for our own "springboards" for an interesting in-class discussion could definitely use the "marijuana mandate," especially when discussing Gonzales v.Raich, 545 U. S. 1 (2005). 

And perhaps the springboarding could incorporate the First Amendment (and RFRA) challenges to the so-called "contraceptive mandate" now before the Court in Hobby Lobby, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Corporation.   It might be an interesting to contemplate the relevance of Employment Division, Dept. of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith in this light.

This could make for a fun discussion.