Maral v. City of Live Oak

In 1996, the people of California passed an initiative to ensure that “seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes.” This initiative (Proposition 215), as well as a later law passed by the Legislature (S.B. 420), makes it clear that California patients and their caregivers can grow and cultivate marijuana for medical use. However, at the end of 2013 the California Court of Appeal in Maral v. City of Live Oak wrongly authorized cities and counties to completely ban the cultivation of medical marijuana. These bans hurt seriously ill patients by preventing them from accessing medical marijuana. 

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has joined the Plaintiffs in Maral in asking the California Supreme Court to grant review in the case and hold that California law forbids cities and counties from banning qualified patients and caregivers from growing, possessing, or using medical marijuana as authorized by the state’s voters and legislature. If the Supreme Court does not want to take this case to decide that important issue, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California is asking that it depublish the erroneous Court of Appeal opinion so that it does not prompt other localities to enact similar bans, as some have already begun to do.