Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided a case concerning the allegation of unfair labor practices at Curaleaf Arizona, a medical marijuana dispensary. In Absolute Healthcare v. NLRB, the court granted Curaleaf's petition challenging some NLRB findings that the company had committed unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act.
The fact that Curaleaf is a medical marijuana dispensary makes this an interesting case. While Curaleaf's activities are legal under Arizona law, they are criminal under federal law, so Curaleaf is engaged in a criminal enterprise. This makes it interesting, to say the least, for a federal agency (the NLRB) to police Curaleaf's treatment of its employees. (For an exploration of other curiosities caused by the state-level legalization of the distribution and sale of marijuana, see my book, Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane.)
Judge Millett wrote the panel opinion, granting Curaleaf's petition insofar as it challenged the NLRB's findings. (Some of the NLRB's findings were uncontested.) Senior Judge Ginsburg and Judge Walker joined the opinion. Judge Walker also wrote a separate opinion raising questions about whether the NLRA reaches allegedly unfair labor practices by employers engaged in businesses that remain illegal under federal law.
