The trouble with press accounts of Supreme Court cases:

I generally much like the work of AP Supreme Court reporters, who have to put out clear and terse copy in a very short time; but unfortunately this story illustrates the pitfalls of press accounts of Supreme Court cases. The story begins with:

The Supreme Court appeared hesitant Monday to endorse medical marijuana for patients who have a doctor’s recommendation.

Justices are considering whether sick people in 11 states with medical marijuana laws can get around a federal ban on pot.

It then goes on for several paragraphs about whether marijuana is medically useful.

It’s only in the 11th paragraph that the story mentions the specific legal question — “The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against the government in a divided opinion that found federal prosecution of medical marijuana users is unconstitutional if the marijuana is not sold, transported across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes” — but then it returns again to arguments about whether marijuana bans are good or bad. Finally, in the 16th paragraph, the story does say “Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, conservative states that do not have medical marijuana laws, sided with the marijuana users on grounds that the federal government was trying to butt into state business of providing ‘for the health, safety, welfare and morals of their citizens,'” which is the closest the story comes to stressing the state power vs. federal power issue involved here; but, I think, that’s too little and too late.

Nowhere in its 19 paragraphs does the story clearly state the constitutional issue: Does regulation of private possession of marijuana (and private growing for personal use) exceed the federal government’s powers, so that the Constitution leaves the question entirely to the states? I suspect that the typical reader of the story will come away with thinking “The Supreme Court is deciding whether medical marijuana should be banned” — consider again the opening sentence, “The Supreme Court appeared hesitant Monday to endorse medical marijuana for patients who have a doctor’s recommendation” — rather than “The Supreme Court is deciding whether bans on private possession and growing of marijuana should be up to the states rather than to the federal government.”