1. What arguments are the states of Oklahoma and Nebraska using in their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana? Be specific.

2. What do Oklahoma and Nebraska want the Supreme Court to do? Be specific.

3. a) What is prosecutorial discretion?
b) Do you think President Obama’s Attorney General should have used prosecutorial discretion to not challenge the states’ recreational marijuana laws (para. 22) that are a direct violation of federal law? Explain your answer.

4. How does Colorado defend its position?

5. What argument do all 9 of the former administrators of the DEA use in their friend of the court brief supporting Nebraska and Oklahoma?

6. In defending his state’s position from Oklahoma and Nebraska’s complaint, Colorado Solicitor General Frederick Yarger wrote,

• “Colorado does not intend, nor has it attempted, to reach across the border to invade the Plaintiff States’ sovereign rights. Colorado’s marijuana laws stop at the state border.”
• Yarger noted that it is a violation of both federal and Colorado law to transport Colorado marijuana to a different state.
• “It is Colorado’s sovereignty that is at stake here: Nebraska and Oklahoma filed this case in an attempt to reach across their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they disagree,” he said.

Do you think Solicitor Yarger’s assertions are reasonable? Explain your answer.