February 26, 1998

Rev. Tom Brown
#04808-010
P.O. Box 5000
Greenville Illinois 62246

Dear Carl,

        Thanks for the great letters and newsletter.  Richard Glen Boire was the only one of 12 attorneys who even bothered to reply to my request except for you of course.  So I am on my own again and it is progressing nicely.  There have been a number of recent decisions on ¤2241 writ of habeas corpus filings that fit my circumstances.  I am also collecting decisions on All Writs Act filings that can be made only after release from custody.  In that regard, I am requesting to be sent to San Francisco, California for half way house and release on supervised release next March, 1999.  If the ¤2241 filed to Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit succeeds, then I will return to Arkansas to file the civil suit to recover damages.  If the initiative there succeeds I will be able to re-establish Our Church there then, if it fails I will probably try to work on one for the next election myself before calling it quits with Arkansas.  The way things are rolling it is surely soon to be that most of the states will have repealed marijuana prohibition.  If the ¤2241 to Posner fails then I will have nothing to return to Arkansas for immediately.  If I get to Frisco, I can file there to overturn the conviction citing the 9th Circuit Bauer decision and get relief that way there anyway.  I don't know what will happen as to damages if I am able to get that conviction overturned there, whether I have to return to Arkansas to file or not.   But I will let all that settle itself.  Right now, I am in pre-release program and have to pick a landing spot if my sentense is to be completed.  So San Francisco is it for that.  I need to finish the ¤2241 and get that filed and then wait on that to see results there.  I wrote to the Native American Church folks there in California - even enclosed a stamped self addressed envelope for their reply but nothing yet.  The enclosed letter to the editor is revealing.  Recall my argument on my ¤2255 last year that the feds lack jurisdiction under the commerce clause?  Well here is the real deal on that right from the horses ass.  I am hoping that with all the attention being paid to the civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the doctors versus the feds, and the civil lawsuit filed against the buyers clubs in California, that they will raise the jurisdiction issue and there will be too much attention to just ignore it.  You may recall that the courts first said that there was no federal jurisdiction under the commerce clause to regulate waterfowl hunting or opium poppy growing.  Then more recent decisions quoted international treaties as having created jurisdiction that did not otherwise exist.  Since then there hasn't been a big enough case to get the Supreme Court to review this precedent and we we have been stuck eith it.  In this letter Dulles spills the beans for all to see.  The courts have never had the gall to rule this way, but their more limited findings have pointed to what Dulles is claiming.   Of course only scum like Dulles could propose that the Constitution could be superceded by a treaty ratified by a simple majority of the senators sitting in the hall when the issue comes up, but his diabolical intent is clear in his statement that even the Bill of Rights is superceded by the treaty.  I don't think things have gotten so bad yet that the Supreme Court could shove this down America's throat.  All we need is enough political heat to force their hand and their reversal will overturn a lot of precedent of the lower courts that needs to be shot down.  In a related issue, this may be why the DEA has reversed itself and submitted the rescheduling question to the dept Health and Human Services.  You know of this I am sure, from Mike Kennedy's office on the Jon Gettman suit filed in 1995?  If not, let me know and I will burn you a copy of it received here recently.  If the DEA is going to allow rescheduling, that will make moot the civil lawsuits and end any possibility that the New World Order folks will lose this jurisdictional precedent.  That may be why the DEA is moving on this now, after so many years since your lawsuit and the resulting 1988 ruling.  If they were going to stone wall this far, why not continue?  But now out of the blue - so to speak - they are apparently moving in our direction.  Will wonders never cease.
        Heard from Rev. Nieman of the Coptic Theocratic Assembly as to his final disposition.  He was in the county jail at his writing, but hoping to make an appeal bond on his income tax return, with high hopes for his appeal.   It looks like his medical necessity argument based on ineffective assistance of counsel in bad ruling by the lower court should work based on the Florida precedent.   It is really great to hear of others troubles occasionally, especially knowing how the teamwork will put us all in a better position the next time around - wherever that might be.  I haven't seen you mention that Flores only invalidated RFRA for state application and that it is still good for the federal level.  I think that you should maybe cover Nieman's case also, and some on the Canadian church developments.   If you don't tell us about it, who will?
        Got a black rasta here who claims that pot is not rasta and that it is a poison for the black community.  I have been reviewing videotapes of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, "Legend", and "Red X" respectively.  They are incredible.  I had no idea that these two represented themselves as priest/prophets, and that they lived up to the name so well.   I have prepared partial transcriptions of the statements made, and both of them are clear that pot is necessary to rasta.  This battle has been very interesting, one of the most dangerous of my prison experience.  So far it's bloodless, and I hope that will continue, but the personal experience of the confrontation is as real as it has ever been.  EVIL is palpable, obvious, overwhelming, consuming.  It has been a real lesson in dragon slaying.  I suggested to Jeff Brown this week that it would be useful to have a book that breaks down the development of the churches, Coptic, Rasta, Ethiopian/Zion Coptic, etc.  This local rasta is hooked up with a woman in Chicago that is making these anti pot rasta claims.  Apparently it is a significant movement, though I can't think of why it would be.  What is the attraction of an anti-pot rasta church?  There is already the Nation of Islam, the Baptist and other black christian fundamentalist churches that are anti pot.  Why hook rasta into anti-pot?  It's a mystery, but this guy is rabid about it.  I will have to check my vacination record.  Pray for me.
        Got to get, and thanks again.  I am now working in slave labor UNICOR factory sewing military uniforms for the black helocopter crews.  I will send you some pesos next month when I get a check.  You have been so faithful and I have appreciated it very much.  Thanks again and know that you are in our prayers.

Love

Tom Brown