About Angel Galvan-Raich

I’m a fearless go-getter who dives into every challenge with unstoppable energy, turning bold ideas into unforgettable adventures and lasting impact! I am unstoppable!

Angel Galvan-Raich Advocate, Legal Trailblazer, and Lifelong Learner

Angel Raich is a community leader and national advocate whose work has made history, brought change, and advanced justice. For that, this brave woman has risked everything. Raich's mission is to serve as a voice for the voiceless, those left behind by society because of disability, poverty, or a medical condition. At the heart of her story is a simple premise: Every person matters. She has used her life as a platform to tell the stories of countless others and to attempt to right the wrongs done to them.

For many years, Angel has used her sharp legal brain, strategic thinking, and unmatched work ethic to frame the arguments that win rights for the sick, disabled, and disadvantaged. She has run her professional life around high-stakes litigation support, public policy work, and community advocacy; around a sinewy path that, much to our benefit, keeps her close to the sick, disabled, and disadvantaged. Along the way, she has led in federal, state, and local nonprofits. Angel has uncrossed some very tangled crosses in the legal regulatory mazes. She has worked alongside attorneys on fragile family law cases that are hard to win. In jobs that few have the stamina for, she has led investigations that uncover elder financial abuse, housing rights violations, and disability discrimination.

Angel is a fighter and winner of a cancer battle who survived with an elbow prosthetic after limb-salvage surgery. She has proven herself a capable candidate for the U.S. House and is valued for her unwavering, firm stance on issues of justice and integrity. In a land where life, limb, liberty, and justice are supposedly guaranteed, nobody should have to fight Angel's kind of battle.

In 2024, Angel journeyed to Bali on a life-changing trip, where she became a yoga instructor. She fully embraced the island's spiritual practices and its breathtaking beauty, taking in every moment. En route to the profound healing that she was so passionate about, Angel had an epiphany that she shared with us when she called in for an interview. Her true calling, she realized, is to direct and guide others. After covering the 'basics' of both the law (she is quite proficient, as we learned in the interview) and yoga, Angel now serves as a bridge between these two worlds.

Almost 60, Angel is today pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice, alongside her Associate of Arts in Human Resources. She is in a new, vibrant chapter that is building on an incredible history of advocacy and law. She holds audacious goals for herself that extend well beyond mere graduation. She aims to engage with public institutions at the state level, using her legal smarts, investigatory skills, and leadership chops to do inarguably good things for the inarguably ordinary and vulnerable among us. She has her sights set on enforcement and compliance institutions—those responsible for ensuring that the laws on the books are more or less the same as the laws in real life—so that those laws protect folks like women and children, who in many circumstances are more or less lawfully protected (Sharon Reed).

Angel's story is one of boldness and unwavering intent. She has demonstrated that dreams can come true late in life. Most impressive of all, perhaps, and what makes her story here most noteworthy, is that she has proven women can succeed in roles traditionally denied them by naysayers, even when those onlookers seem convinced their words ought to hold some sway.

Angel’s US Supreme Court Case — Alberto Gonzales v. Angel McClary Raich

The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Raich (545 U.S. 1, 2005) dealt with the clash between federal and state laws concerning medical cannabis. The Court's ruling in this case also had a profound effect on shaping the legal interpretation of the Commerce Clause.

Background

It started when federal agents wiped out marijuana plants that Diane Monson of California had been tending to. Monson is a patient using marijuana legally under California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215). She and fellow plaintiff Angel Raich—who, like Monson, had been using physician-recommended cannabis to treat serious medical conditions—took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. They argued that enforcing the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) against them violated several constitutional provisions, including the Commerce Clause and the Due Process Clause. Raich and Monson lost in the US Supreme Court in June of 2025.

Legal Question

The question was central: 

Can Congress, under the Commerce Clause, pass a law to criminalize an entirely non-commercial activity, where no money changes hands, and occurs within one state? 

Yes, said the Court, in a decision written by Justice John Paul Stevens and joined by five other justices. The Court held that the activity in question—the cultivation and personal use of medical cannabis—could be regulated by Congress, even if state law authorized it.

Supreme Court Decision

The Court ruled 6–3 that Congress could lawfully prohibit local growing and use of cannabis even if states, like California, have authorized it for medical use. In the majority opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens argued that even non-commercial growing of cannabis for use that stays within California could have effects that reach across state lines to the illegal drug market and thus was something Congress could regulate under its power to control "interstate commerce."

Impact & Significance

• Federal supremacy over state law. The decision reaffirmed that federal law can override state policies in areas where Congress has authority.

• Commerce clause interpretation. It expanded Congress's power to regulate even non-commercial, intrastate activities that are part of a larger federal scheme.

• Precedent in later cases. Gonzales v. Raich has been cited in numerous contexts, including debates over the Affordable Care Act.

• Continuing relevance. Despite state-level legalization, the ruling still underpins the federal prohibition of marijuana.

The Human Story Behind Gonzales v. Raich

Angel Raich found herself in 2005 at the very heart of one of the most pivotal constitutional law battles of our time — Gonzales v. Raich. This landmark U.S. Supreme Court case concerned far more than marijuana; it was about patients' rights, the limits of federal power, and states' abilities to look after their most vulnerable citizens.

A seriously ill patient named Angel counted on recommended medical cannabis to deal with her seriously impairing health conditions. When the federal government moved to override California's Compassionate Use Act, she became one of many voices protesting that move.

Angel has not become a face fronting a profitable or attention-seeking endeavor. She has not sought a politically motivated outcome. She has not sought anything but survival. But when her rights and the rights of other patients were threatened, she protested in the manner of that ancient American truism: "no taxation without representation."

The situation ascended to the Supreme Court, querying whether Congress was permitted to act under the Commerce Clause to make illegal certain behaviors that were, by state law, perfectly legal. These included the growing of weed in one's own backyard, the use of such weed by oneself, and the private, never-to-be-sold cannabis business.

Angel's battle for her legal rights was a fight. It was a courageous fight, with Angel at the center, closely engaged with her legal team and her story—a story that goes beyond politics and is too often buried beneath stigma. With the public educated and with national media attention, the judgment's reach was narrowed, and Angel's rights were defended.

The Court's 6-3 decision reaffirmed the federal government’s authority over states when Gonzales v. Raich moved marijuana law from the personal arena to the national legal landscape. The case is now taught in law schools everywhere and cited in major federal decisions that have nothing to do with cannabis.

Even though the ruling did not favor Angel, her legacy in this case is one of resilience, advocacy, and leadership. She showed that a single, dedicated citizen can confront the highest Court in the land. More importantly, she forced the nation, with this case, to address the balance of power between states and the federal government.