Commentary “Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary!” blared the headline on the June 29, 2021, NBC News story. The item continued, “Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices, said Monday that because of the hodgepodge of federal policies on marijuana, federal laws against its use or cultivation may no longer make sense.” Wow! The Supreme Court’s most conservative justice says it’s time to legalize pot! But the story was false. Thomas isn’t a “conservative justice;” he’s an originalist. Nor did he state that federal anti-marijuana laws “no longer make sense.” Rather, he wrote that under the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Gonzales v. Raich (pdf), some local applications of federal law may no longer be constitutional. Gonzales v. Raich upheld a federal prohibition of medical marijuana against users who act wholly within their state and in conformity with their state’s law. …