California Defendants Can Refile RFRA Challenge To Marijuana Seizure

In Multidenominational Ministry of Cannabis and Rastafari, Inc. v. Gonzales, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10727 (ND CA, Feb. 2, 2007), a number of individuals and a non-profit religious corporation sued federal, state and local officials seeking an injunction and declaratory judgment to prevent confiscation of marijuana plants grown on their property. Plaintiffs had lost challenges to prior seizures of marijuana. This suit was filed after the seizure of 11,500 marijuana plants in 2005. The court dismissed plaintiffs' claims under the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, RLUIPA, and California's Compassionate Use Act. Some of the claims were dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds. Claims by the corporation were dismissed because, unlike the individual plaintiffs, it could not appear pro se. The court, however, refused to accept defendants' res judicata defense alleging that the claims could have been raised in prior litigation. The court found that the U.S. Supreme Court's O'Centro decision "shifted the legal terrain surrounding plaintiffs' suit, thereby warranting reexamination of the grounds for relief raised in plaintiffs' previous petition." While dismissing plaintiffs' current complaint as insufficient, it gave them the opportunity to file an amended RFRA complaint against the federal officials setting forth a proper prima facie case.