It Really Wasn't About Marijuana At All -- A Quiz

A number of States, including California, have adopted laws authorizing people to grow and possess marijuana for personal medical use when such use is prescribed by a doctor. That virulent prude, defender of federal power (when used in righteous ways of course), and scourge of State's Rights (when used in the promotion of evil)John Ashcoft did not like that. Using marijuana is a sin don't you know, even when being used under a doctor's supervisions by terminally ill cancer patients for palliative reasons. So, righteous John ginned up a test case by sending the DEA into some private homes in California to seize marijuana being grown in conformance with State law.

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the case: federal law controls and States may not allow anyone to possess marijuana for any reason. That's too bad, of course, but, for the Justices at least, the case had almost nothing to do with marijuana. One can divine this much simply by looking at how the Justices split.

I want you to guess how each Justice voted. To help you here is a list of the Justices ordered (approximately) from most "liberal" to most "conservative":

Ginsberg
Breyer
Souter
Stevens
Kennedy
O'Connor
Rhenquist
Scalia
Thomas

Don't cheat now. Given their political leanings, try to guess who voted for allowing medical marijuana and who voted against. The answer -- and the reasons -- will be provided in the next post.