The San Diego CityBeat reported Dec. 7 that the San Diego County Board of Supervisors authorized the lawsuit in a 4-0 vote; John Sansone, the lawyer for the county, said the case would argue that "federal law is supreme and prevails over state law."

"If one could show ... that the state law is conflicting with the federal law or is antagonistic to the federal law, then courts in the past have ruled that state laws are federally preempted and have no force or effect," he said.

The board also has voted to file a similar suit over a state law requiring counties to issue medical-marijuana ID cards.

Medical-marijuana activist Barbara MacKenzie said the board should be concerned with upholding state law, not challenging it. "It blows me away that they'd go against state's rights and the proposition process, as if they're not accountable to the people who elected them," she said.

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