Weed Shops Deserve Due Process, Says Judge
Let the weed bodegas be! A recent crackdown by New York City authorities on stores selling marijuana without a license led to the shutdown of more 1,100 businesses. Now, a state judge is telling authorities not so fast.
Operation Padlock to Protect—the New York City policy used to justify the shutdowns—is unconstitutional, per New York Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan. (In New York, the state’s highest court is called the Court of Appeals; Supreme Courts are trial courts that hear criminal and civil cases.)
The policy, adopted last spring, allowed the city sheriff to inspect any business selling cannabis or cannabis products without a proper registration, license, or permit to do so, and to “execute and order the sealing of certain places of business where such conduct continues after an inspection has revealed violations, or where such conduct poses an imminent threat to public health, safety, and welfare.”
Owners of shuttered businesses can request a hearing with the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), which will make a recommendation about whether the business should be allowed to reopen. “But the ultimate decision is up to the sheriff — and lawyers representing businesses that have been shut down say it’s not uncommon for the sheriff to ignore OATH’s recommendations,” notes the Gothamist.
This is the situation that a store called Cloud Corner found itself in. The Queens-based store was accused of illegally selling marijuana and shut down in September. After a hearing, an OATH officer recommended that the store should be allowed to reopen. But city sheriff Anthony Miranda declined to follow this recommendation and ordered the store closed for one year.
Cloud Corner sued, alleging that due process had been violated.
Justice Kerrigan agreed that there were “clear” due process issues at play here. “If the final arbiter has the authority to confer no weight to the hearing, there is no real meaningful opportunity to be heard, which…raises a due process concern,” he wrote in his decision.
The city says it will appeal, and has basically gone full-blown Reefer Madness in its defense of forcibly shutting down businesses over license violations. “Illegal smoke shops and their dangerous products endanger young New Yorkers and our quality of life, and we continue to padlock illicit storefronts and protect communities from the health and safety dangers posed by illegal operators,” said Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, on Tuesday.
Congressional Republicans are recommending criminal charges for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). The GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is expected this morning to send a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland recommending criminal charges against Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about COVID-19 deaths.
“At issue is Cuomo’s truthfulness regarding his role in the writing and review of a state health department report from Jun
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