Ravin v. State

Ravin v. State, 537 P.2d 494 (Alaska 1975), was a 1975 decision by the Alaska Supreme Court that held the Alaska Constitution's right to privacy protects an adult's ability to use and possess a small amount of marijuana in the home for personal use. The Alaska Supreme Court thereby became the first—and only—state or federal court to announce a constitutional privacy right that protects some level of marijuana use and possession.

History

It was brought about by Irwin Ravin, an attorney who deliberately got arrested in Anchorage for refusing to sign a traffic ticket while in possession of marijuana in order to challenge the existing law.

The court ruled:

...we conclude that no adequate justification for the state's intrusion into the citizen's right to privacy by its prohibition of possession of marijuana by an adult for personal consumption in the home has been shown. The privacy of the individual's home cannot be breached absent a persuasive showing of a close and substantial relationship of the intrusion to a legitimate governmental interest. Here, mere scientific doubts will not suffice. The state must demonstrate a need based on proof that the public health or welfare will in fact suffer if the controls are not applied.

Subsequent law

Alaskan voters approved a ballot initiative recriminalizing marijuana possession in 1990, but in Noy v. State, the Alaska Court of Appeals held that ballot initiatives are subject to the same constitutional limitations as legislative enactments, and thus the portion of the amended statutes criminalizing possession of less than four ounces of marijuana in the home was unconstitutional. In June 2006, the Alaska Legislature amended the law to prohibit the possession of more than one ounce of marijuana and to make possession of more than one ounce of marijuana a class A misdemeanor. In July 2006, Juneau Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins struck down the law, ruling it unconstitutional. Three years later, in August 2009, in a 3-2 ruling, the Supreme Court of Alaska vacated the ruling, finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue in the first place.

In November 2014, Alaskan voters approved a ballot measure to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana, regulating it in a manner similar to alcohol sales.