State v. American Civil Liberties Union

OPINION

MATTHEWS, Justice.

Under the ripeness doctrine, the constitutionality of a statute generally may not be challenged as an abstract proposition. The plaintiffs in the present case have brought a pre-enforeement challenge to a newly amended statute that prohibits the possession and use of marijuana. They claim that because the statute criminalizes the use by adults of small amounts of marijuana in their homes it violates their privacy rights as interpreted in Ravin v. State.1 The question addressed in this opinion is whether the general bar on abstract adjudication should apply. The…