Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. Drug Enforcement Administration

Section 7606 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 created an exception to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) by permitting an institution of higher learning to grow or cultivate industrial hemp (1) for purposes of agricultural or academic research and (2) if permitted under the laws of the state in which the institution was located. In 2015, The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (the tribe) (plaintiff) passed a tribal ordinance legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp on tribal lands by licensees of the tribe. The tribe entered into an agreement with the College of the Menominee Nation (the college) to research the viability of industrial hemp cultivation and granted a license to the college, which began cultivating industrial hemp. Several months after the tribe enacted the ordinance, federal agents seized and destroyed the tribe’s hemp crop. The tribe filed a declaratory-judgment action asking the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to declare that the tribe’s cultivation of industrial hemp for research purposes in cooperation with the college was lawful under § 7606. Specifically, the tribe asked the court to declare that, in enacting the hemp ordinance, the tribe had acted as a state within the meaning of § 7606. In the alternative, the tribe asked the court to declare that its cultivation of industrial hemp was allowed under Wisconsin law because Wisconsin’s cannabis laws did not apply to industrial hemp cultivation on tribal land. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) (defendant) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) (defendant) filed a motion to dismiss the tribe’s action, and the tribe filed a motion for summary judgment.