NEW YORK’S SOCIAL EQUITY LICENSES JUST GOT DEPORTED

The CAURD Program Wasn’t Just a Legal Mess — It Was an In-State-Only Protectionist Scheme, and the Courts Finally Shot It Down

Boof du Jour | Licenses — August 2025

In a stunning act of judicial sanity, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has officially ruled that New York’s CAURD (Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary) program violated the U.S. Constitution by limiting eligibility to people only convicted of cannabis offenses within the state of New York. Translation: if you caught your charge in Jersey, Baltimore, or Philly — tough shit. You’re not equitable enough for Empire State weed.

Now that’s justice… as written by Andrew Cuomo’s coke dealer and rubber-stamped by the Dumbest Regulatory Board This Side of the Mississippi™.

THE CAURD DISASTER, NOW WITH FEDERAL OVERSIGHT

Remember when New York promised to deliver the country’s most “equitable” cannabis rollout?

Here’s what they actually did:

• Created a program that only let in-state felons apply.

• Designed an “equity” scoring matrix that ignored things like generational impact or economic hardship.

• Denied entry to anyone who dared be incarcerated outside the five boroughs.

• Forgot that the Dormant Commerce Clause exists — a basic constitutional protection from exactly this kind of state-level gatekeeping.
  

And now? The federal court finally slapped the blunt out of their hand.

“This is just protectionism with better PR.”— paraphrased summary of the court’s actual tone, if not the quote

"EQUITY" FOR WHO, EXACTLY?

The idea was simple: if you were arrested for weed, you should have a shot at the legal market.

The problem was how they defined “you.”

Caught a charge in Syracuse? Congrats, you’re equity now.Arrested in Newark with a quarter-ounce in 2010? Sorry — the line’s over there behind the legacy farmers, the fund managers, and the governor’s nephew.

The CAURD criteria made sure no one from out of state could get in — even if they’d done time, been displaced by the drug war, or built a business underground for decades. It was social equity gerrymandered by ZIP code and enforced with the smug confidence of a freshman poli-sci major on edibles.

OTHER STATES: FLAWED, BUT NOT THIS DUMB

Let’s be clear: equity programs everywhere have issues. But New York is the only one that tried to write constitutional protectionism into the rulebook.

State	Residency Requirement?	Equity Program?	Still Let Out-of-Staters In?
Massachusetts	Yes, 1-year minimum	Yes	Yes
Minnesota	Yes, 5 years	Yes	Yes
Maryland	No	Yes	Yes
New Jersey	Yes	Yes	Yes
New York	Yes — and you must’ve been convicted here	Yes	Absolutely not

So while other states might nod toward local preference, New York basically said:If you didn’t catch your charge here, you can’t sit with us.

FAKE COMMITMENT, REAL FALLOUT

Now that CAURD has been legally torched, New York is scrambling to figure out how to repair a licensing system built entirely on regional narcissism.

The Office of Cannabis Management has reportedly held six closed-door meetings, two legal retreats, and a strategy session called “Equity 2.0: Still Equity, But With Lawyers.”

Expect the following in the next few months:

• Emergency Amendments to the scoring rubric — now using vague terms like “justice-adjacent”

• Outreach campaigns aimed at “formerly excluded applicants,” with sign-up links that don’t work

• A new licensing round announced via PowerPoint and then retracted via Instagram comment
  

SHOUT OUT TO THE PEOPLE WHO GOT FUCKED

• Operators who relocated to New York just to apply under equity — now left holding empty leases, attorney fees, and a shitty eighth of “Donnie Diesel.”

• Applicants with federal or other-state convictions, who were told they “don’t qualify” despite being the definition of legacy.

• The public defenders, nonprofit clinics, and community leaders who begged regulators to fix this two years ago and were ignored.
  

To them, the state offers this apology:

“Our bad. Here’s a slightly different mess to climb through.”

CONGRATULATIONS, NEW YORK. YOU PLAYED YOURSELF.

The CAURD program wasn’t just flawed — it was illegal by design. The state dressed up exclusion as progress and hoped no one would notice. The feds noticed.

And now we get to watch the same geniuses who built the dumbest licensing framework in the country scramble to replace it with something they can defend in court.

Here’s an idea: next time you promise social equity, start by not banning 49 states from participating.

Because otherwise? You’re not building equity. You’re just throwing taxpayer money into a legal woodchipper and calling it reform.