Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Fejes v. FAA (9th Cir. - April 23, 2024)

Given that marijuana is legal in Alaska and that the feds generally don't prosecute the stuff, it seems incredibly harsh to entirely deprive someone of his livelihood -- here, taking away James Feje's private pilot license (he's a bush pilot in Alaska) -- just because he transport weed to rural Alaskan communities that have no roads and no other way to get the stuff.

That said, yeah, the statute does seem to say that your pilot's license can indeed be revoked for flying weed, so if the federal government elects -- in its sage (?) discretion -- to pull your license, there's really nothing the Ninth Circuit can do about it.

Given the underlying statutory predicate, as a lawyer, I might have suggested to Mr. Fejes that he be a little more low-key about his business. At a minimum, maybe expressly calling his company "Flying High Investments" was a mistake.