A lawsuit seeking to thwart two ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana in Nebraska can proceed, a District Court judge has ruled.
Both measures will remain on the ballot as the case moves through the court system, according to the Nebraska Examiner.
The initiatives are:
- Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, which would legalize possessing, manufacturing, distributing, delivering and dispensing cannabis for medical purposes. It also would create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to oversee the new law.
- Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act, which would set the allowable amount of medical cannabis at 5 ounces for qualified patients.
In a 14-page ruling, Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong on Friday rejected Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, filed by former state Sen. John Kuehn, a veterinarian, rancher and former member of the Nebraska State Board of Health, the Nebraska Examiner reported.
Kuehn sued Secretary of State Bob Evnen to prevent the petitions from being certified for the November ballot, alleging they contained irregularities such as duplicate names, the names of unregistered voters and incorrect birthdates and addresses.
Strong threw out two other complaints Kuehn filed.
The judge dismissed his complaints that:
- State Sen. Anna Wishart failed to include a city, state or ZIP code on her sworn statement as a petition sponsor.
- Kuehn’s argument that the petitions violated the state’s single-subject rule for citizen-led initiatives, which prevented the measure from appearing on the ballot in 2020.
The ballot measure’s campaign manager, Crista Eggers, said the group will continue to pursue legal options against the signature-based challenges.
“We have complete confidence that our local election officials correctly and accurately validated the petition signatures and that our campaign met all legal requirements to appear on the ballot,” she said in a statement.
