Judge Rejects Medical Marijuana Users’ Housing Bias Claims

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development won its bid to dismiss a civil suit challenging the denial of Section 8 housing benefits to medical marijuana users because the drug remains illegal under federal law, a federal court said.

Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan, of the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, concluded two women and the Housing Authority of Indiana County in Pennsylvania didn’t sufficiently allege that HUD’s policy of excluding medical-marijuana users from receiving Section 8 subsidies discriminated against them.

Ranjan also determined the challenges to the federal agency’s statutory authority were premature because HUD ...