--- title: Feds Tell Supreme Court to Stay Out of State Weed Dispute description: Federal officials have asked the Supreme Court not to get involved in a lawsuit from Oklahoma and Nebraska over Colorado's marijuana policy. canonical: https://time.com/4153218/supreme-court-state-marijuana-dispute/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-17T15:15:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:47.489Z article:section: Politics og:title: Feds Tell Supreme Court to Stay Out of State Marijuana Dispute og:description: Nebraska and Oklahoma want the Supreme Court to block Colorado's legal marijuana system og:url: https://time.com/4153218/supreme-court-state-marijuana-dispute/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dcae380a569ee55/698875d4cd1bbae54c6fe945/marijuana.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1632 og:image:height: 918 og:image:alt: 564752727 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Feds Tell Supreme Court to Stay Out of State Marijuana Dispute twitter:description: Nebraska and Oklahoma want the Supreme Court to block Colorado's legal marijuana system twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dcae380a569ee55/698875d4cd1bbae54c6fe945/marijuana.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Feds Tell Supreme Court to Stay Out of State Marijuana Dispute > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Inside the World of Medical Marijuana for Kids [Watch (HLS stream): Inside the World of Medical Marijuana for Kids](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6Ic4KUCK.m3u8) (16:16)  _Published 2014-10-21. The story of a family's illegal cross-country drive to transport marijuana oil for their epileptic 3-year-old daughter. A look inside the quasi-legal, science free world of medical marijuana for children from TIME's Red Border Films_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 17, 2015 3:15 PM UTC  Close-Up Of Marijuana Plants Close-Up Of Marijuana Plants Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 17, 2015 3:15 PM UTC **Correction appended, December 18, 2015** Federal officials have asked the Supreme Court not to get involved in a lawsuit from Oklahoma and Nebraska over Colorado’s marijuana policy. The two states argue that marijuana legalization in Colorado has resulted in people from Oklahoma and Nebraska bringing marijuana over the border into their states. The two states sued Colorado and are requesting the Supreme Court to interfere and block Colorado’s system. [As USA Today reports](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/16/feds-ask-supreme-court-stay-out-lawsuit-over-colorado-marijuana/77457652/), Colorado has asked for the case to be thrown out and the Supreme Court asked the federal government to offer its opinion on the matter. The feds have responded arguing that the Supreme Court should stay out of it. “Entertaining the type of dispute at issue here — essentially that one state’s laws make it more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in another state — would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this court’s original jurisdiction,” Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. wrote in his response filed Wednesday, [USA Today reports](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/16/feds-ask-supreme-court-stay-out-lawsuit-over-colorado-marijuana/77457652/). Since citizens are the ones breaking the laws in Nebraska and Oklahoma, and not Colorado as an entity, officials argue the Supreme Court shouldn’t weigh in. Verrilli says that while Nebraska and Oklahoma argue Colorado’s laws increase the likelihood that laws are broken, the two states have not made any indication that Colorado has directed citizens to bring marijuana over state lines. USA Today reports that the lawsuit could still be filed in federal court. \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/16/feds-ask-supreme-court-stay-out-lawsuit-over-colorado-marijuana/77457652/)\] **Correction:** The original version of this story misstated one of the states involved in the lawsuit. 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