Medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996, but its dispensaries and their proprietors have periodically faced crackdowns from federal authorities who do not recognize the state law, which was passed as Proposition 215.
The strictness of enforcement varies dramatically, although families expecting lax supervision can sometimes face sudden crackdowns.
That broad flare-up of public ire has given way to an array of more fragmented movements, some of which have been struggling in the face of crackdowns by Brazilian security forces.
But in the face of crackdowns, smugglers began developing other methods and routes, and in recent years, officials say, most Chinese have been smuggled into the country in small groups or individually, often by way of Latin America or the Caribbean, many across the Mexican border.
Demonstrators expressing political and economic grievances faced violent crackdowns by their countries' security forces.
The judge also said the business and immigrant rights groups had not shown that they faced imminent crackdowns.
Mr. Maliki had urged demonstrators to stop or face a crackdown, saying they were being manipulated by groups intent on harming national unity.
Another sector constantly facing government crackdowns for disproportionately high salaries is the rail industry; a failed (and virtually abandoned) privatisation project.
