Angel Raich is back in court with a new strategy less than a year after the Supreme Court decided that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana patients, even in states where medical marijuana is legal.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard new arguments in the case March 27, 2006, as part of an appeal DPA is helping to fund. The new arguments deal with the assertion that Raich should be allowed to use medical marijuana because she has the fundamental right to avoid death and severe pain under the Fifth and Ninth Amendments.

These arguments did not factor into the 2005 Supreme Court ruling, which dealt strictly with questions of interstate commerce. The Ninth Circuit sided with Raich on the interstate commerce issue when it heard the case in 2003 before it went to the Supreme Court. Raich's argument was that medical marijuana grown and consumed within California could not be considered to involve interstate commerce, and thus was not under federal jurisdiction.

The Ninth Circuit may not rule on the new arguments for several months.