Earlier this month, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a key safeguard in New York’s cannabis equity program. In Variscite NY Four v. New York State Cannabis Control Board , the court ruled that giving “Extra Priority” in licensing to New Yorkers with marijuana convictions unlawfully discriminated against out-of-state applicants under a constitutional doctrine known as the “dormant commerce clause.”

That doctrine was designed to regulate the exchange of lawful goods, but cannabis has no lawful interstate market. Congress still classifies it as contraband, and interstate commerce in it remains a federal crime. Extending the protection of this doctrine to cannabis is a distortion of the law, one that exposes a deeper truth about American jurisprudence: “neutrality” is rarely

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