Ex parte TheraTrue Alabama, LLC PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS (In re: TheraTrue Alabama, LLC v. Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission and Rex Vaughn, Sam Blakemore, Dwight Gamble, Dr. Jimmie Harvey, James Harwell, Taylor Hatchett, Dr. Eric Jensen, Dr. Angela Martin, Hon. Charles Price, Dr. William Saliski, Loree Skelton, Dr. Jerzy Szaflarski, Dr. H. Mac Barnes, and Dion Robinson, in their official capacities as members of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission) (Montgomery Circuit Court: CV-24-58; Civil Appeals: CL-2024-0312).

• Court: Supreme Court of Alabama
• Decided: October 31, 2025
• Docket: SC-2025-0006
• Status: Published

Opinion

Rel: October 31, 2025

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter.

SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA OCTOBER TERM, 2025-2026

_________________________

SC-2025-0006 _________________________

Ex parte TheraTrue Alabama, LLC

PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS

(In re: TheraTrue Alabama, LLC

v.

Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission and Rex Vaughn, Sam Blakemore, Dwight Gamble, Dr. Jimmie Harvey, James Harwell, Taylor Hatchett, Dr. Eric Jensen, Dr. Angela Martin, Hon. Charles Price, Dr. William Saliski, Loree Skelton, Dr. Jerzy Szaflarski, Dr. H. Mac Barnes, and Dion Robinson, in their official capacities as members of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission)

(Montgomery Circuit Court: CV-24-58; Court of Civil Appeals: CL-2024-0312) SC-2025-0006

McCOOL, Justice.

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. In denying the

petition, this Court does not wish to be understood as approving all the

language, reasons, or statements of law in the Court of Civil Appeals'

opinion. Horsley v. Horsley, 291 Ala. 782, 280 So. 2d 155 (1973).

WRIT DENIED.

Stewart, C.J., and Shaw, Wise, Bryan, Sellers, and Mendheim, JJ.,

concur.

McCool, J., concurs specially, with opinion, which Cook, J., joins.

Lewis, J., recuses himself.

2 SC-2025-0006

McCOOL, Justice (concurring specially).

The dispute in this case stems from the decision of the Alabama

Medical Cannabis Commission ("the AMCC") to deny the application for

a medical-cannabis license that was submitted by TheraTrue Alabama,

LLC ("TheraTrue"). See § 20-2A-1 et seq., Ala. Code 1975. TheraTrue

challenged the AMCC's decision in the Montgomery Circuit Court and,

after failing to obtain relief there, filed an appeal in the Court of Civil

Appeals. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the circuit court's

judgment, see Southeast Cannabis Co. v. Alabama Medical Cannabis

Comm'n, [Ms. CL-2024-0300, Dec. 20, 2024] ___ So. 3d ___ (Ala. Civ. App.

2024), and TheraTrue has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in this

Court.

In its petition, TheraTrue contends that, in affirming the circuit

court's judgment, the Court of Civil Appeals "fe[lt] 'bound' by this Court's

precedents [requiring] it [to] defer to the AMCC's [statutory]

interpretation." Petition, p. 6. It is indeed a well-established rule in

Alabama that, "in interpreting a statute, a court accepts an

administrative interpretation of the statute by the agency charged with

its administration, if the interpretation is reasonable." Ex parte State

3 SC-2025-0006

Dep't of Revenue, 683 So. 2d 980, 983 (Ala. 1996). And that same rule

has been used in federal courts since 1984, pursuant to the United States

Supreme Court's decision in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources

Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984). TheraTrue notes, however,

that Chevron was overruled last year in Loper Bright Enterprises v.

Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369, 412 (2024) -- a case in which, TheraTrue says,

the United States Supreme Court "drove the nail into the coffin of

Chevron deference." Petition, p. 6. Thus, according to TheraTrue, this

Court should likewise overrule our own precedents that require "judicial

deference to agency interpretations of statute[s]," id., and it contends that

this case "presents a golden opportunity to do just that." Id., p. 7.

This Court has denied TheraTrue's petition, and I concur with that

decision. However, my agreement with that decision does not mean that

I am opposed to reconsidering Alabama's precedents that require judicial

deference to a state agency's reasonable statutory interpretation. To the

contrary, I am quite open to that idea, but, in my opinion, this is not the

case in which to revisit those precedents because it does not appear to me

that the outcome of TheraTrue's appeal would be any different if we

overruled them. Thus, I encourage petitioners to continue raising this

4 SC-2025-0006

issue in future cases. And, although I do not speak for my fellow justices,

I would caution future petitioners not to interpret the denial of

TheraTrue's petition as an indication that this Court is unwilling to

revisit Alabama's "Chevron-style" deference at a later time.

Cook, J., concurs.