Robert Mikos 
Professor of Law | Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES
Expert in federalism and drug law, including marijuana legalization.
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Biography
Robert Mikos is one of the nation’s leading experts on federalism and drug law. His most recent scholarship analyzes the struggle among federal, state, and local governments for control of marijuana law and policy, which includes a first-of-its-kind casebook, Marijuana Law, Policy, and Authority (Wolters Kluwer, 2017). In that vein, he has written, testified, and lectured on the states’ constitutional authority to legalize marijuana, federal preemption of state marijuana regulations, the political and budgetary considerations that limit enforcement of the federal marijuana ban, federal law’s influence on state regulation and taxation of the marijuana industry, and the desirability of marijuana localism. He has also written on the states’ constitutional authority to withhold information from the federal government, sanctuary cities, the political safeguards of federalism, accuracy in criminal sanctions, the economics of private precautions against crime, and remedies in private law.
Mikos earned his J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as articles editor on the Michigan Law Review and won numerous awards, including the Henry M. Bates Memorial Scholarship. After graduation, he was a law clerk for Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Mikos has taught at the University of California at Davis, where he was twice nominated for the school’s Distinguished Teaching Award, as well as at Notre Dame and the University of Michigan. He teaches courses in Federalism, Constitutional Law, Marijuana Law and Policy, Federal Criminal Law, and Drug Law and Policy.
Areas of Expertise (12)
Hemp Law
Sanctuary Cities
Opioid Abuse
Marijuana legalization
Marijuana Law and Policy
Federalism
Constitutional Law
Marijuana Law
Drug Laws
Pill Mills
Medical Marijuana
Cannabis Law
Education (2)
University of Michigan: J.D., Law 2001
Princeton University: A.B., Public and International Affairs 1995
Affiliations (2)
- American Bar Association
- Committee on Cannabis Law
Links (2)
Selected Media Appearances (7)
Colleges Ban Medical Marijuana Use, Even In States Where It Is Legal
Forbes online
2021-06-23
“I think schools are just worried about rocking the boat and jeopardizing that funding,” says Robert Mikos, professor of law at Vanderbilt University Law School. “You can see why a school would be leery of that. Because there’s a lot of money at stake.”
Oregon Votes to Decriminalize All Drugs, Allow Psilocybin for Mental-Health Treatment
The Wall Street Journal online
2020-11-04
“There are a lot of parallels between what Oregon is trying to do now and what states were doing with marijuana 40 years ago,” said Robert Mikos, a law professor at Vanderbilt University who has written about marijuana legalization. “As long as the sky doesn’t fall in Oregon, some other states might follow suit.”
Medical Marijuana Loophole Case Headed To Arizona's Supreme Court
NPR online
2018-10-22
STONE: Arizona is a cautionary tale about the possible fallout of using the ballot instead of state legislators to craft marijuana reform laws, says Rob Mikos. He's a law professor at Vanderbilt University and says these measures aren't always comprehensive. ROB MIKOS: You're opening the door to those opponents to sort of revisit the issue and exploit those gaps.
San Francisco Will Clear Thousands of Marijuana Convictions
The New York Times online
2018-01-31
“In all the other states, the process has been messy,” said Robert Mikos, a professor at Vanderbilt University who studies marijuana law and policy. “But whether people agree with what they did or not, California at least addressed it and there’s value in that.”
Here Are The Proposed Laws That Could Protect Legal Pot in 2018
Newsweek online
2018-01-17
"I don't think Congress will change the substantive law," Robert Mikos, a Vanderbilt law professor who studies marijuana policy, told Newsweek. "It might tinker around the edges by making research a little bit easier," he added.
Forget Obamacare. Congress Should Repeal and Replace This Instead.
Fortune online
2017-08-04
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a bold measure Tuesday to repeal the federal ban on marijuana and leave governance of the drug in the hands of the states. The Marijuana Justice Act (MJA) declares that the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—the comprehensive federal statute that governs almost every other psychoactive substance—would no longer apply to marijuana. (Congress has already exempted alcohol and tobacco from the CSA.)
Ballot initiatives take the pulse of the nation
The Conversation online
2014-11-05
But Vanderbilt University law professor Robert Mikos explains in a new paper why legalizing and taxing marijuana distribution has too many legal hurdles to actually work. “People in favor of taxing marijuana distributors are grossly underestimating the difficulty of collecting a tax on a drug that remains illegal under federal law,” said Mikos.
Selected Articles (3)
Marijuana Law, Policy, and Authority
Vanderbilt Public Law Research PaperRobert A. Mikos
2017 "This is the introductory Chapter from my textbook, Marijuana Law, Policy, and Authority. This-first-of its kind textbook is designed to guide instructors, students, and practitioners alike through the competing approaches to regulating marijuana, the policies behind those approaches, and the power of various federal, state, and local government actors to pursue them."
Making Preemption Less Palatable: State Poison Pill Legislation
Vanderbilt Public Law Research PaperRobert A. Mikos
2016 "Congressional preemption constitutes perhaps the single greatest threat to state power and to the values served thereby. Given the structural incentives now in place, there is little to deter Congress from preempting state law, even when the state interests Congress displaces far exceed its own."
Marijuana Localism
Vanderbilt Public Law Research PaperRobert A. Mikos
2015 "The states have wrested control of marijuana policy from the federal government, but they risk losing some of their newfound power to another player: local governments. Hundreds of local communities are now seeking to establish their own marijuana policies, from legalization to prohibition and a variety of idiosyncratic regulatory schemes in between.."
