Government Relations & Lobbying
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Dean Mead Files a Response to Government’s Motion to Dismiss Fried’s Lawsuit Against Federal Government for Ban on Gun Possession by Marijuana Users
On Wednesday, September 7, 2022, Dean Mead filed a response to the Federal Government’s motion to dismiss on behalf of the firm’s client, Nikki Fried, who runs Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, against the Biden Administration over a federal law that prohibits marijuana users from possessing guns.
Regarding Dean Mead’s response to the U.S. Department of Justice, partner Daniel Russell is quoted: “If you are a medical marijuana patient in Florida the Federal Government is arguing in Federal Court in Tallahassee that you are too dangerous to possess a firearm. The Government’s Motion to Dismiss, the legal document in which the Federal Government is arguing that you are too dangerous to own a gun, was disappointing in its misunderstanding of the current status of the state-by-state legalization of medical marijuana in America. Our response urges the Court to allow the case to proceed and not allow the Federal Government to continue to discriminate against individuals who are treating medical issues with medical marijuana, a far safer alternative than many prescription drugs.”
The original lawsuit was filed by Fried in April 2022. In it she argues the current policy violates the Second Amendment of medical marijuana users. Fried currently manages the department that oversees concealed carry permits and is part of the state’s cannabis industry. The current policy does not allow someone in possession of a medical marijuana license to also have a concealed carry license since marijuana is federally illegal.
On August 8, 2022, the DOJ responded to the April 2022 lawsuit. In support of their motion to dismiss the amended complaint, or alternatively summary judgment, they drew parallels to controversial past gun bans for specific historical groups. Dean Mead filed a response to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss calling out that their response “equates depriving state-compliant medical marijuana patients of their Second Amendment rights to the historical disarming of Catholics and Native Americans.” Additionally, in their motion to dismiss, the DOJ deemed “state-compliant medical marijuana patients [are] too violent to be trusted with a core Constitutional right, but simply gloss over the fact that federal law protects those patients’ actions.”
The Dean Mead team representing Nikki Fried includes Daniel Russell, chair of the firm’s Regulated Industries team, administrative law partner William D. Hall and attorney Jordane Wong.
About Dean Mead:
Dean Mead is a business law firm providing full-service legal representation, government relations, and lobbying throughout Florida. The firm has six offices with 57 attorneys and four government relations professionals in multiple practice areas including federal tax, state and local tax, estate and succession planning, business litigation, corporate law, labor and employment, government relations and lobbying, regulatory compliance, employee benefits, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, commercial real estate, leasing, construction law, lending, environmental, land use, water law, utilities law, and eminent domain. For more information, please visit http://www.deanmead.com.
