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A federal appeals court on Tuesday banned the Justice Department from prosecuting medical marijuana cases if no state laws were broken. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the federal agency to show that 10 pending cases in California and Washington state violated medical marijuana laws in those states before continuing with prosecutions. (Elias and Johnson, 8/16)

In a potential legal breakthrough for medical marijuana, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department cannot prosecute anyone who grows, supplies or uses the drug for medical purposes under state law because Congress has barred federal intervention. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was written by one of its most conservative judges, Diarmuid O’Scannlain, and was the first by any appeals court to prohibit federal prosecutions under spending restrictions enacted by Congress. First passed in 2014 and renewed through September, the budget amendment forbids the Justice Department to spend any money to prevent California and other states from “implementing their own state laws” that authorize the medical use of marijuana. (Egelko, 8/16)

The Arizona Department of Health Services, which oversees the medical-marijuana program, has received about 750 applications for the 31 licenses that will be awarded in October. The intense competition for the permits has set off a land rush of sorts, with applicants scrambling to lock down properties in metro Phoenix, Tucson and elsewhere that regulators might deem best suited for new dispensaries. Proposition 205, which would legalize marijuana for recreational use, would also give medical-marijuana dispensaries in good standing the first shot at the recreational licenses. (Sanchez, 8/16)