City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health & Wellness Center, Inc.
California Supreme Court
300 P.3d 494 (2013)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
A pair of California laws permitted the use of medical marijuana by exempting producers and users of medical marijuana from criminal prosecution that would ordinarily apply. The City of Riverside (plaintiff) passed an ordinance deeming any facilities that sold medical marijuana in the city to be a nuisance, thus effectively prohibiting any such facilities in the city. Inland Empire Patients Health & Wellness Center, Inc. (Inland) (defendant) operated a medical-marijuana facility in the city. The city brought suit on the ground that the facility violated the city ordinance. Inland argued that the ordinance was preempted by the state laws that permitted the production and use of medical marijuana.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Baxter, J.)
Concurrence (Liu, J.)
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