Norton Criticizes Republican Threats to D.C. Officials Acting in Good Faith on Advice from Their Lawyers

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today decried "unnecessarily hostile congressional reactions" to the District of Columbia's marijuana reform law, Initiative 71, which takes effect on Thursday. Norton said that a letter sent last night by Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, as well as his comments to the media, warning District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and other D.C. officials that they could go to jail for implementing D.C.'s marijuana legalization initiative, were "baseless threats in failing to acknowledge that there is a good-faith and honest difference of legal opinion on the effects of the Republican rider attached to the Omnibus appropriations bill passed last year. The District is not responsible if the Republican language failed to convey their apparent intent, and their failure should not result in unbecoming threats to District officials, who are acting in good faith on advice from their lawyers. It is particularly absurd and threatening to conclude that differences in opinion between lawyers for Republicans and lawyers for the District put city officials ‘in knowing and willful violation of the law.'"

Republicans claim that the fiscal year 2015 Omnibus appropriations bill, which was signed into law in December, blocks Initiative 71 from taking effect. However, Norton found a flaw in the language that reasonable laypeople can understand. The language in the final bill had been changed from D.C. may not "enact or carry out" any law, rule or regulation to legalize marijuana to D.C. cannot "enact" any law, rule or regulation to legalize marijuana. However, since the Initiative had already been enacted by voters in November it required no additional enactments by the District to implement and none have occurred. Norton's interpretation has been supported by lawyers for the D.C. Council and the Mayor's office, along with D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, with all of them doing their own independent and separate legal analyses. Moreover, their interpretation has been supported by House Democratic leaders, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), House OGR Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY), and House D.C. Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jose Serrano (D-NY).

District residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of Initiative 71 to combat racial injustice when they learned that virtually only people of color end up with drug arrests for possession of marijuana.

Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, all D.C. legislation, including initiatives, must be transmitted to Congress for a review period before they can take effect. A bill takes effect at the expiration of the review period unless a resolution of disapproval is enacted into law during that period. The review period expires today. Norton has prevented a disapproval resolution from being enacted into law since 1991.

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