| ACLU of New Mexico

Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on September 17th, 1787. In 2004, Congress approved September 17th as an official federal holiday (sorry folks, no time off work!). The act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.
This year, the Montessori Elementary School in Albuquerque invited ACLU-NM for Constitution Day to make a presentation to their 6th and 7th grade students on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We, or course, were delighted.
ACLU-NM Staff Attorneys Leon Howard and Jennifer Cohen had the pleasure of giving a short presentation on the history, meaning and significance of the U.S. Constitution to a class of bright, interested students--who seemed to know all the answers!
At the end of the presentation we handed out a list of made up scenarios and asked the students to identify which amendment to the Constitution applied to the situation. The students split up into small groups and discussed, then came back together to give their answers a few minutes later. Every group got almost every question right.
So, you think you know the Bill of Rights? Do you think you know it better than a 6th grader? Take the same quiz to find out!:

Bill of Rights
Which Amendment Applies?

In Ohio, on a trip back from vacation in Miami, Florida, LeBron James is arrested for the crime of betrayal (assume that this is a real crime in the State of Ohio). An attorney represents Mr. James in a trial and he is convicted by a jury of his peers. While in jail for 6 months, the guards do not allow Mr. James to play basketball or ever go outside. In addition, the guards in the jail only allow LeBron James to eat 3 Ohio-State-Buckeyes (a type of chestnut) a day, one for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for dinner.

Petey Pablo is arrested by the police for trying to bring illegal things on an airplane. He tells the police officers that he wants an attorney. They refuse to provide him with one.

Justin Bieber is walking down Gold Street when two police officers run up to him. One of the officers holds him down while the other cuts his off a bunch of his hair and puts it in a bag for DNA testing.

The Governor of New Mexico declared Green Chili as officially better and hotter than Red Chili. The next day a Red Chili lover by the name of Rojo wore a t-shirt around town that said, “Red Chili is HOT, Green Chili is NOT!” To Rojo’s surprise he was confronted by a police officer that forced him to take his shirt off for disagreeing with the Governor.

Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad, and Taylor decide that they are going to all wear red arm bands one Friday to show their protest of the school board’s decision to extend the school year into July. The principal threatens to suspend them if they do not remove the arm bands.

Peter Griffin is arrested at the mall. He is sent to jail without ever having a trial or being told the crime with which he was accused.

Uma Stella Adams is walking home from school and she is stopped by a Border Patrol Agent. The Agent asks Uma if he can go through her back pack. Uma replies, “No.” The Agent goes through her backpack anyway.

Ned Flanders petitions the City of Springfield to make Christianity its official religion. The City requires every family to put a cross in its front yard and to go to church every Sunday.

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Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 2:23pm

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Read more about Do You Know the Constitution Better than a 6th Grader?

By Micah McCoy, Communications Specialist
Are you chronically ill? Has your Doctor prescribed medical marijuana to treat your condition? Then you may not be welcome in federally subsidized apartment complexes here in New Mexico.
You may have been following this issue recently in the news. The Albuquerque Journal recently reported that Monarch Properties Inc., a private corporation that operates 14,500 multifamily units in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas—some of which are federally subsidized through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—sent out letter to all the of the properties it owns or manages in the New Mexico, asking residents to sign lease attachments saying that they will not use or grow medical marijuana in their homes.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that this pronouncement would affect residents of the 86 rental apartment complexes in 27 cities throughout the state that Monarch owns or operates.
So where did this come from? Did the good people at Monarch Properties just wake up one morning and decide that chronically ill people in government assisted housing didn’t have enough on their plate already? Here’s what Monarch’s attorney said:

"Marijuana is a controlled substance, and therefore possession, use or cultivation of the same is illegal pursuant to the Federal Controlled Substances law. Monarch manages a number of properties that are involved in federal housing programs that receive either federal subsidies, financing or other support," Tucker wrote. "Participation in those programs mandates compliance with federal law as well as other federal housing regulations and guidelines."
The federal agencies involved "have sent memoranda concerning medical marijuana, and the pre-emption of state medical marijuana laws by the Federal Controlled Substances Act and other Federal law," Tucker wrote. "Monarch has adopted a policy and developed a lease addendum based upon those memoranda that specifically deals with medical marijuana."

Unfortunately, Monarch interpreted the HUD memo to mean that they are required to evict medical marijuana patients who medicate or grow in govt. subsidized housing. This interpretation is false.
Here’s what Daniel Korobkin and Michael Steinberg—attorneys at the ACLU of Michigan—wrote in response to a similar issue in their state:

“It is a common misperception among landlords of federally assisted housing that they are required to evict tenants who violate federal drug laws. In fact, termination of a lease due to drug use is entirely discretionary under federal law…federal law gives landlords complete discretion over drug-related evictions. In other words, a landlord or property manager who exercises her discretion not to evict a medical marijuana patient will face no fine, loss of funding, or any other penalty.”

Thankfully, the great deal of negative press attention Monarch received on this issue prompted them to use their discretion as permitted under federal law. Last week Monarch released a statement rescinding the notice to non-federally assisted tenants and stated that they would consider federally assisted tenants with medical marijuana prescriptions on a case-by-case basis.
While we welcome this small victory of reason and compassion, it still begs the question: why did this have to be an issue in the first place? Why does the federal government feel the need to implement policies that force chronically ill people to choose between treatment for their disease and a roof over their heads?
It appears that federal bureaucrats at HUD feel that they are better qualified to decide this issue than the New Mexico’s elected representatives who passed the NM Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, the licensed doctors who prescribe medical marijuana to their patients, and the patients suffering from debilitating diseases who use medical marijuana to help alleviate chronic pain, nausea, neuromuscular disease symptoms and dangerous weight loss caused by cancer and HIV/AIDS.
This is why a patchwork of medical marijuana laws that vary state-by-state is not a sustainable solution when the federal government continues to perpetuate the lie that marijuana has “a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use…and lack of accepted safety for use.” This claim—a relic of the anti-drug hysteria of the late 20^th century—has been so thoroughly debunked by leading medical associations and vast amounts of scientific evidence that it is rendered preposterous.
The federal government must stop pretending that the tens of thousands of medical marijuana patients in the 15 states where it is legal don’t exist. Here in New Mexico we legalized medical marijuana for a very good reason: because it helps sick people to feel better. Low income, chronically ill New Mexicans who can’t find relief in any other medications don’t deserve to be singled out, harassed and perhaps even evicted from the only housing they can afford just because the federal government doesn’t have the courage to do what we here have already done—take a sensible, compassionate approach to marijuana as medicine.