“Equal is not fair, and fair is not equal. Equal is obtainable but fair is not.”
The Montgomery County Circuit Court overseeing the launch of Alabama’s medical cannabis program has an interesting dilemma on its hands. It has previously ruled that awards to integrated facility applicants were illegal because the underlying basis of the awards – specifically, that an emergency rule promulgated by the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission that allowed for the awarding of licenses was invalid because there was no emergency. That ruling was immediately appealed, and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals agreed to hear the appeal on an expedited basis and stayed the circuit court’s order enjoining the AMCC from proceeding with the issuance of integrated facility licenses.
Last week, the circuit court heard arguments about whether dispensary applicants should be similarly enjoined (with the order stayed) in light of the fact that the same emergency rule ruled invalid by the circuit court but stayed by the appellate court while that court hears expedited briefing.
On the one hand, it seems entirely logical that the trial court would attempt to place apparently similar applicants in similar legal standing. On the other hand, one could reasonably assume that the appellate court is poised to overturn the trial court’s decision given its expedited review of the integrated facility order and its previous decisions overruling the trial court. If that is the correct assumption, is the court right to simply put the different categories in similar legal standing or should it read the tea leaves and simply choose not to rule on the question until it gets word of the appellate court’s appellate review?
That’s a pickle. My takeaway from oral arguments is that the court will enter a similar injunction and simultaneously stay its decision pending a ruling on the broader emergency rule issuefrom the appellate court. That would be treating the different categories of applicants equally, but is it fair in light of the appellate court’s apparent disapproval of the trial court’s ruling?
As a mentor once told me, a fair is a circus with pigs. And as always in this case, nothing is as simple as it appears.
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