The U.S. Supreme Court tackled a case on Tuesday involving a New York state man who was fired from his job as a commercial truck driver for failing a drug test after taking cannabidiol, or CBD, that he said was falsely sold as lacking the psychoactive ingredient present in marijuana.
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On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case involving a man from New York who lost his job as a commercial truck driver after failing a drug test. The man, Douglas Horn, says the test came back positive because he took a CBD product that was falsely advertised as being free of THC—the psychoactive compound in marijuana.
At the heart of the case is whether Horn can sue Medical Marijuana Inc., a company based in San Diego, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. This federal law, originally passed in 1970 to target organized crime, also allows individuals to sue for triple damages if their business or property is harmed due to certain illegal activities.
Back in 2012, Horn was recovering from a trucking accident and bought a CBD tincture called Dixie X, which was advertised as a natural pain reliever with no THC. However, after a random drug test detected THC in his system, Horn was fired from his job—a position he'd held for more than 10 years. Horn insists he doesn’t use marijuana.
The case has now reached the Supreme Court, where the justices seem divided on whether Horn's loss of employment falls under the type of business injury RICO was designed to address.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh voiced concerns about setting a broad precedent. He said, "That would be a dramatic, really radical shift in how tort suits are brought throughout the United States," adding that Congress would have been more explicit if it intended for personal injury claims to be covered by RICO.
On the other hand, Medical Marijuana's attorney, Lisa Blatt, argued that allowing Horn’s lawsuit to move forward could open the floodgates to all sorts of personal injury cases becoming federal issues. She said, “It is utterly implausible that Congress federalized every slip and fall involving RICO predicates,” pointing to crimes like embezzlement and mail fraud as examples of what the law was meant to address.
However, some of the justices seemed open to Horn’s argument. Justice Elena Kagan asked, “If you're harmed when you lose a job, then you've been injured in your business, haven't you?” She added, “The simplest, clearest reading of this statutory language is it doesn’t distinguish by what causes the harm.”
Horn and his wife filed their lawsuit back in 2015, claiming that Medical Marijuana and its associated companies violated the RICO Act by engaging in a “pattern of racketeering activity,” including violating federal drug laws and committing mail and wire fraud. Horn even had the CBD product tested in a lab, which confirmed that it contained THC.
While a lower court initially ruled against Horn, an appeals court reversed that decision, which is why the case is now before the Supreme Court. A ruling is expected by June.
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