A New Jersey federal judge has decided against getting involved in a dispute between Jersey City and police officers it terminated after they tested positive for marijuana use, ruling that any conflict between federal gun control law and the state's cannabis legalization statute should be dealt with on the state level first.
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Jersey City's lawsuit urged the federal court to rule that any employment protection that the state's cannabis legalization act provides does not apply to police officers since federal law prohibits anyone using marijuana to possess firearms. But on Friday, U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals decided to stay proceedings in the case, saying that, at this point, it doesn't make sense for federal litigation to continue while a state action on the same matter moves forward.
"The court agrees [with the officers] that continuing this matter potentially wastes judicial resources, particularly based on the similar issues presented," he said. "The extensive litigation that has occurred in the parallel proceedings to date weighs in favor of abstention and avoids procedural fencing irrespective of plaintiffs' motivations for selecting this forum. Accordingly, this factor weighs against exercising jurisdiction."
Judge Neals' order stopped short of totally dismissing the suit, as the officers requested. Rather, he allowed the city to bring the claims back to the district court within 60 days after the state proceedings have wrapped up.
The order comes less than a month after Administrative Law Judge Matthew G. Miller ordered the city to reinstate with back pay one of the police officers, Mackenzie Reilly, who was fired after a positive drug test revealed off-duty marijuana use. The city can still appeal, on the state level, Judge Miller's finding, the court record suggests. The court record suggests that the state has ordered the city to reinstate at least three of the officers.
The city's federal suit claimed that the Federal Gun Control Act, which prohibits users of Schedule 1 drugs from possessing firearms, conflicts with New Jersey's Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act, or CREAMM Act, which says law enforcement officers cannot be fired or disciplined for using cannabis while off duty provided they are not under the influence while working. Jersey City argued that this federal law preempts the state law.
The officers argued that the federal law differentiates "between guns issued for private use and guns issued for government use: it lifts the vast majority of the act's provisions (subject to a few exceptions, none of which applies here) when a firearm or ammunition is 'issued for the use of' a government entity."
Ultimately, Judge Neals ruled that it was better for him to abstain from the case for now.
"In carefully reviewing the pending parallel proceedings, as well as the relevant factors that overwhelmingly weigh against exercising jurisdiction ... the court will abstain from exercising jurisdiction and stays this matter pending the outcome of the state administrative proceedings and any related appeal," he said.
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