By Tom Angell

 

The federal government is in a state of flux following last week’s surprising election result.

President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key positions in his new administration. And leadership posts are being reshuffled in Congress.

There are several developments that could have key implications for marijuana law reform efforts.

Chief among these will be the selection of a new attorney general to oversee the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. Several candidates whose names have been floated — former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama — are seen as strong opponents of legalization who could convince the new president to ditch campaign pledges to respect state marijuana laws.

But on Tuesday night, another name was added to the mix: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

While no fan of legalization personally, Cruz, who ran earlier this year for the Republican nomination against Trump, repeatedly pledged over the course of the campaign that he thinks states should be able to end cannabis prohibition if they desire.

“I actually think this is great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called ‘the laboratories of democracy,’” he said at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference. “If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that’s their prerogative. I don’t agree with it, but that’s their right.”

In a Fox news Channel interview, he said, “I think that is a decision for the states to make and so if some states choose to do that, they have the authority to do that. We should respect it.”

And on another occasion, Cruz said, “Under the Constitution, under the Tenth Amendment, I believe the states have the authority to make that determination… I think they have the Constitutional right to do that… We ought to be willing to let the people decide, and that makes everyone happier when the people have the authority to decide.”

Of further interest to marijuana law reformers, it was also reported on Tuesday that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California is being vetted as a backup candidate for secretary of state should Giuliani, who is being considered for that post as well as for attorney general, doesn’t get the nomination.

Earlier this year, Rohrabacher became the first sitting member of Congress in decades to admit to consuming cannabis while serving. He has also, for more than a decade, been a chief sponsor of legislation to prevent the Justice Department from interfering with state medical marijuana laws. For the past two fiscal years, his efforts to enact the amendment into law have been successful.

Rohrabacher is seen as unlikely to get the nomination or to be confirmed as head of the State Department, but that such a vocal pro-legalization legislator’s name is in the mix and stands to have influence over the next president bodes well for reform efforts.

In September Rohrabacher said he has “spoken to Mr. Trump personally, and he has assured me that if he were to become president he intended to honor the states’ rights to medical marijuana laws.”

While the president-elect has shifted his positions on a number of issues over the years, factors seem to be aligning to encourage the Trump White House to keep candidate Trump’s pledges on respecting state marijuana laws.

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, on Capitol Hill, a reshuffling of Democratic leadership positions in the Senate announced on Wednesday could also be good news for marijuana law reform.

It was determined that criminal justice reform supporter Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont would ascend to the top Democratic seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee following the retirement of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who championed several important cannabis amendments in recent years, including the Senate companion to Rohrabacher’s amendment.

In making the decision to go for the Appropriations spot, Leahy is giving up the top opposition seat on the Judiciary Committee, where Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California will ascend.

While Feinstein is a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization and the Judiciary panel has jurisdiction over cannabis policy issues, this may actually be the best possible outcome for reformers.

Given that Democrats didn’t win enough seats to take over the Senate, it is seen as unlikely that major standalone marijuana bills will be heard or voted on in committee during the 115th Congress. However, it is expected that a number cannabis amendments will still be voted on in the Appropriations Committee and, if Leahy didn’t take the leadership post there, it would likely have gone to Feinstein. So even though a key reform opponent will be the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, legalizers will have an important ally in a leadership position on the committee where most of the marijuana action will be in the next Congress.

These developments, combined with broader changes to the makeup of both the Senate and the House due to the election results, put marijuana reform efforts in Congress in a stronger position than they’ve ever been.