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Neil Feinberg, et al. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, No. 18-9005 · judgment February 26, 2019

Certiorari denied · October 7, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

The State of Colorado legalized marijuana. The Federal Government contends that state-legal marijuana sales constitute unlawful drug trafficking prohibited by federal law. The IRS applied 26 U.S.C Sec. 280E against the Petitioners because they sold state-legal marijuana. The reason why the IRS applied the statute was because the IRS contends the Petitioners were federally unlawful drug traffickers. The question presented for review is: 1. Did the Tenth Circuit err in holding that the Controlled Substances Act superseded and preempted Colorado marijuana laws? (i)

Counsel of record

For petitioner
James David Thorburn
Thorburn Law Group

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Oct 07 2019
    Petition DENIED. Justice Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.
  2. Aug 14 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
  3. Aug 05 2019
    Waiver of right of respondent Commissioner of Internal Revenue to respond filed.
  4. Jul 25 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 26, 2019)