Hashish legislation continues to stay in constitutional limbo. States like Washington and California have constructed strong, tightly regulated hashish markets, whereas federal legislation nonetheless treats marijuana as contraband. That pressure has now collided head‑on with one of many Structure’s strongest doctrines: the Dormant Commerce Clause.
Only recently, in January 2026, the Ninth Circuit weighed in with a carefully watched choice upholding Washington’s hashish residency necessities towards a dormant Commerce Clause problem. The case, Peridot Tree WA, Inc. v. Washington State Liquor & Cannabis Control Board et al., does greater than resolve a licensing dispute. It tees up a elementary query: Does the Structure defend interstate commerce in a market Congress has made unlawful?
What’s the Dormant Commerce Clause?
The Structure provides Congress the ability to control interstate commerce. From that affirmative grant, the Supreme Courtroom has lengthy inferred a destructive corollary: states typically could not enact legal guidelines that discriminate towards or unduly burden interstate commerce, even when Congress is silent. This implied restriction is named the Dormant Commerce Clause.
At its core, the doctrine is anti‑protectionist. States could not tilt the financial taking part in subject to favor in‑state actors over out‑of‑state opponents. Legal guidelines that explicitly discriminate towards interstate commerce are continuously per se invalid.
However the Dormant Commerce Clause can also be controversial. It’s decide‑made, not textually specific, and the Supreme Courtroom has repeatedly warned that courts should train “excessive warning” earlier than utilizing it to invalidate democratically enacted state legal guidelines. That warning loomed massive within the Ninth Circuit’s evaluation.
Peridot Tree and the Ninth Circuit’s holding
The problem
Peridot Tree, a hashish firm owned by a Michigan resident, challenged hashish licensing regimes in each Washington and Sacramento, California. In every jurisdiction, Peridot alleged it met all substantive licensing standards besides residency necessities that favored native or in‑state candidates.
Peridot argued that these residency guidelines have been basic financial protectionism and subsequently unconstitutional below the dormant Commerce Clause.
The Ninth Circuit’s Reply: No Dormant Commerce Clause Safety. Due to this fact, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the decrease court docket’s dismissal of the lawsuits. Its holding was blunt: The dormant Commerce Clause doesn’t apply to hashish markets as a result of marijuana stays unlawful below federal legislation.
The court docket declined to increase a decide‑made constitutional doctrine to guard interstate commerce in a market that Congress has expressly prohibited. Within the court docket’s view, the “elementary goal” of the dormant Commerce Clause—preserving a nationwide market free from state protectionism—evaporates when Congress has determined that the nationwide market mustn’t exist in any respect.
In reaching that conclusion, the Ninth Circuit parted methods with a First Circuit decision and a Second Circuit decision, each of which held that state hashish residency necessities violate the dormant Commerce Clause, regardless of the federal illegality of marijuana. The Ninth Circuit as a substitute aligned itself with a rising physique of district court docket choices (and with dissents from different circuits) emphasizing that unlawful markets are constitutionally totally different in form.
Put in a different way: there is no such thing as a implied constitutional proper to interact in unlawful interstate commerce in accordance with the Ninth Circuit.
Federal developments: rescheduling and blended indicators
The federal authorities’s posture on hashish has grown more and more contradictory, and we not too long ago noticed that it’s more confusing than ever.
- Congress continues to categorise marijuana as unlawful below the CSA
- On the similar time, Congress has repeatedly barred the Division of Justice from interfering with state medical marijuana packages.
- Federal enforcement has largely deprioritized hashish.
President Trump’s Govt Order
In December 2025, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Attorney General to finish the rule-making course of to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. Whereas rescheduling wouldn’t legalize hashish outright, we’ve got defined that it could signify a dramatic shift in federal policy—acknowledging accepted medical use and decreasing felony severity.
The Ninth Circuit expressly addressed this growth and located it irrelevant for now. Courts, the panel emphasised, should apply the legislation because it exists, not as it would exist after future political motion.
What occurs if Hashish is rescheduled? A prediction
If marijuana is rescheduled to Schedule III, the constitutional panorama may change—however not routinely.
Brief time period
- Hashish would stay federally regulated.
- Interstate hashish commerce would nonetheless be illegal absent congressional authorization.
- States would probably proceed to defend residency necessities as legitimate workouts of police energy.
Medium time period
As soon as hashish is not handled as a substance with “no accepted medical use,” the Ninth Circuit’s core rationale begins to weaken. Courts could also be much less prepared to say that Congress has declared the complete nationwide market illegitimate.
The most certainly final result shouldn’t be a right away invalidation of residency necessities even with rescheduling on the horizon. Extra concisely, there’s unlikely to be main motion within the software of the dormant Commerce Clause to invalidate residence necessities absent an act of congress rectifying any hashish all illegality within the markets.
From one other perspective, if Congress continues to delay full legalization whereas tolerating state markets, it turns into tougher to argue that hashish is really “outdoors” interstate commerce. Sooner or later, constitutional doctrine could also be pressured to meet up with financial actuality. Till then, residency necessities within the Ninth Circuit stay on stable footing.
Wrapping up
For extra hashish rescheduling insights, take a look at our free webinar this Thursday, January 15th.
For extra on the Dormant Commerce Clause particularly, take a look at the next posts:
