President Biden is gearing up to declare marijuana a much less dangerous drug.

• The Biden Administration is preparing to move cannabis off the federal government’s strictest controlled substances list in a historic reform of the government’s approach toward marijuana, according to widespread media reports. The move, which likely won’t be finalized for months, would liberalize a sweeping range of policies, including medical research, criminal justice, banking and more. It would also mean victory in marijuana reform advocates’ years-long fight to catch the feds up with two decades of recreational and medical marijuana legalization at the state level.  

• The details: The Justice Department plans to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III on the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Controlled Substances list, the Washington Post and basically everyone else reported Tuesday. That officially moves marijuana off the list of the most addictive and dangerous drugs, like heroin, and into the regulatory company of ketamine, codeine, and less harmful drugs with legit medical uses. In the real world, it loosens the enforcement stranglehold that has curtailed medical research and blocked marijuana businesses from access to the banking system and tax benefits. It could even impact federal sentencing guidelines for criminal violations. That last bit is important, because while the schedule change is huge, this isn’t going to make weed legal at the federal level. Only Congress can do that, and despite recent pushes from Dem lawmakers, it hasn’t. 

• Of course, there’s the politics: Marijuana reform is a big issue with younger voters, who have been backing away from Joe Biden over his policy toward Israel and Gaza. While it’s tempting to suppose that Biden dreamed up today’s reforms in a bid to shore up his weaknesses with progressives, the reality is likely more complex. Biden publicly ordered the DOJ and the FDA to review marijuana regulation back in 2022. Federal regulations change directions like ocean liners, not speedboats. So this change, by itself, isn’t a reaction to the uproar over Gaza. The timing of the announcement is another matter. The Biden Administration clearly chose to put this news out there just as the country…and young voters…are focused on campus protests everywhere. That part is surely no accident. 

Any move in the direction of decriminalizing weed is good policy news, and polls show it's wildly popular. Whether Biden can turn it into a political win is a problem that goes way beyond Schedule III.

Judge Merchan also agreed to suspend court on May 17 so Trump can attend his son Barron’s high school graduation. This is unremarkable except for the two weeks Trump and his backers spent lying about Merchan barring him from the ceremony. It never happened. 

Pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University broke in and occupied a campus administration building after officials began suspending students who refused to leave their encampment on the school’s quad. Administrators responded by threatening to expel students occupying the building.  

Meanwhile, professors at Columbia’s Barnard College overwhelmingly voted no-confidence in college president Laura Rosenbury, reflecting broad opposition to several of Rosenbury’s moves including disciplinary action against protesters. 

House Dems officially said they’ll come to Speaker Mike Johnson’s rescue if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tries to slay the windmill of his speakership with a motion to vacate. Greene says she’s undeterred, she’s doing it, but also that she’s not sure how. DOOOOO IT MARGE!

Florida’s near-total abortion ban is set to go into effect tomorrow. Donald Trump said he’d be fine with states monitoring women’s pregnancies to detect if they’ve had abortions. Absolutely not a shock for the guy who said in 2016 that women who receive abortions should be legally punished!

Hunter Biden’s lawyers threatened to sue Fox News and several of its hosts for defamation. Biden, who’s facing federal charges including tax evasion, demanded corrections and updates to several reports about him, and that the network take down a six-part special including a mock trial of Biden for bribery. The network deleted “The Trial of Hunter Biden” on Tuesday.

Trump sycophant and House GOP conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)  filed an ethics complaint with DOJ accusing Special Counsel Jack Smith of “illegal election interference.” It’s incredibly rich considering that, A) Trump literally tried to steal an election, and Stefanik supported it; and B) Trump’s multiple motions accusing Smith of prosecutorial misconduct and selective prosecution have all been shot down…by judges. 

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) says the reason his failed impeachment of Joe Biden is stalled is because there’s just too much evidence to handle!

Northern Ireland is about to get its first-ever Black mayor. Lilian Seenoi-Barr says she’s “deeply honoured” to become Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council on June 3rd.

In excellent climate news, G7 nations have agreed to shut down all their coal-burning power plants by 2035.