After Cannabis Rescheduling Stalls, Industry Looks To US Supreme Court To Overturn Federal Prohibition

Dec 3, 2025 | National

Will the U.S. Supreme Court do what Congress and the White House have not and deliver the $32 billion U.S. cannabis industry from outdated federal marijuana laws?

An answer is inching closer after the highest court on Monday scheduled a meeting for next month to determine whether it will hear a constitutional challenge to federal cannabis prohibition.

If the court hears the case – and if the justices rule in the industry’s favor – cannabis operators could enjoy profound benefits, well beyond what’s promised if President Donald Trump makes good on his promise to consider marijuana rescheduling.

“Part of the reason why we brought the case in the first place was, people in this industry have been told for the better part of the decade relief is coming – and it hasn’t come, despite the fact that 38 states have authorized lawful sales,” attorney Josh Schiller of Boies Schiller, who is arguing the case, told MJBizDaily recently.

“Why is the federal government so far behind more than two-thirds of the country? We don’t know, we can’t explain it,” he added.

“It is just apparently such a low priority, and this case was a way to shake the box a little bit.”

Supreme Court challenge to cannabis prohibition moving along

The court will meet behind closed doors on Dec. 12, according to the docket for Canna Provisions et al vs. Bondi, the lawsuit brought by four marijuana companies that seeks to bring federal cannabis policy before the nation’s highest court for the first time in 20 years.

The court is likely to consider taking up the case in January, Schiller said.

Chicago-based multistate operator Verano Holdings and three Massachusetts-based co-plaintiffs sued the U.S. Department of Justice in October 2023, claiming that federal restrictions on marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act are no longer constitutional.

In addition to Verano, the appellants are Canna Provisions, a Massachusetts cannabis retailer; Gyasi Sellers, the CEO of the Treevit delivery service; and Wiseacre Farm, a cultivator.

The last time federal cannabis laws came before the court was 2005, in Gonzalez vs. Raich.

That was before a single state allowed adult-use cannabis sales. Since then, the legal landscape as well as public opinion have changed dramatically.

And conservative justices, chief among them Clarence Thomas, have questioned prohibition’s validity.

“We do believe there’s been a desire to find the right case to effectively overturn Gonzalez vs. Raich,” Schiller said.