Medical marijuana
One more bit of good news (courtesy of Stephanie Dray): Ed Rosenthal, medical-marijuana grower (officially sanctioned by the city of Oakland), who was convicted a while back of cultivating marijuana by a jury who weren't allowed to be told that Rosenthal's activities were legal by California law (illegal by Federal law), has received the lightest possible sentence: one day in jail.
The San Francisco Chronicle article, though, notes that the presiding judge, Judge Breyer, "also fined Rosenthal $1,300 and put him on supervised release for three years with orders not to violate any criminal laws and to submit to searches." And adds that Rosenthal intends to appeal the conviction. It'll be interesting to see how far this goes.
There's a companion op-ed piece by Debra Saunders objecting to Breyer's judicial activism (although she thinks marijuana should be legalized). An interesting argument. Among other items:
Call me old-fashioned, but I remember when those who engaged in civil disobedience expected to be punished and accepted it. Now they break the law, and their attorneys argue that their clients are so principled, they shouldn't have to go to jail.
And on that note, I'm off to do some editing.