Could felons soon vote from jail?

Good morning. So close to Friday!

All eyes are on Jerry Brown as he continues to decide the fate of many, many bills. In fact, heightening the stakes in the criminal justice debate roiling the country at large, Brown could soon greenlight a law that would allow some state felons to vote from jail.

California has wound up in the middle of the pack on state laws around criminals and voting rights.

CalWatchdog has more.

In other news:

• “Two women have been arrested on charges of holding four brothers captive at an illegal marijuana farm in Northern California and forcing them to work there for six months, police said Wednesday.” The San Jose Mercury News/AP have more.

• “Tehama County sheriff’s detectives investigated 10 murders in 2014 and 2015 — twice as many as the three previous years combined. ‘Our last four homicides were all in what you would call Prop. 215 (marijuana grows),’ said Sheriff Dave Hencratt, referring to large grows under the state’s medical marijuana law.” The Redding Record Searchlight has more.

• “Air quality regulators are considering seeking an increase in vehicle registration fees for millions of Southern California drivers to help pay for smog reduction programs,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

• Almost 40 years after California voters passed Proposition 13 to rein in property tax increases, available data shows that wealthy Californians have benefited the most, according to a new report from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office. 

Legislature:

• Gone ’til December. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced.

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This November, California voters will vote on

But advocates of legal recreational marijuana use in the Golden State and everywhere in the United States got a sharp reminder last week that the federal government reserves the right to have the final say on whether legal pot is OK at the state level. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration brushed aside years of lobbying and ruled that marijuana would remain illegal — still considered a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act and formally classified as having no medical use.

Though the federal government continues to pursue charges against some individuals and some high-profile dispensaries — such as Oakland’s Harborside Medical Center — the Obama administration has said it will not attempt to overturn state marijuana laws. But any future administration could take punitive actions against states with laws allowing recreational or medicinal use, suing in federal court, withholding federal grants or more.

However, a new federal court ruling offers some reassurance that no federal authority can pull the plug on state-approved medicinal pot use, at least.

In a case involving 10 pending prosecutions in California and Washington state, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling Tuesday that said the U.S. Justice Department cannot target marijuana growers, suppliers or users in cases where the drug is being used for medical purposes.

Reagan appointee knocks Justice Department argument

The decision — written by a conservative Reagan appointee, Diarmuid O’Scannlain — cited language included by Congress in budget resolutions that bans federal interference with state medicinal marijuana laws. The language was first inserted into budget measures in 2014. So long as Congress continues to renew the ban on federal action — which has bipartisan support — medical users are protected.

The Obama administration had argued that using federal laws to target medical marijuana users or suppliers wasn’t an intrusion on state law. O’Scannlain disagreed: “If the federal government prosecutes such individuals, it has prevented the state from giving practical effect to its law.”

A U.S. Justice Department official said no decision had been made yet on whether to appeal the ruling, which mirrored the finding in a previous case decided last year by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco.

California became the first state to legalize medicinal use of marijuana with Proposition 215 in 1996.