The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld Nebraska’s two voter-approved medical cannabis laws following a legal challenge to the 2024 petition effort. Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke wrote a 7-0, 49-page opinion ruling against the lawsuit from former state Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, a longtime opponent of medical marijuana.
The court also rejected similar arguments from Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers. The two officials had alleged widespread fraud and “notarial malfeasance” in the petition process.
Kuehn’s appeal sought to get around a Lancaster County District Court judge who affirmed that medical cannabis supporters had enough valid signatures to reach voters in 2024. Those arguments have now been rejected twice.
Hilgers, in a statement, said it is a “sad day for election integrity in Nebraska” and repeated his assertions that the campaign used fraud to get on the ballot and “abused the notary process and the laws of the state.”
“We disagree with the court’s ruling but will follow the law as it stands,” Hilgers said.
“This was never about protecting Nebraska law,” Crista Eggers, the executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, said in a Friday statement. “It was about whether a handful of elected officials could use the court to override the will of the people.”
“Today, our state’s highest court stated the obvious: they cannot,” Eggers said.
Nebraska advocates for medical cannabis have worked for more than 12 years for a safe, regulated system, after winning voter approval in November. A spokesperson for Gov. Jim Pillen noted he signed off on regulations from the voter-created Medical Cannabis Commission, as did Hilgers.
The spokesperson said the commission “will continue to carry out its work in accordance with the will of the people who voted to support legalizing medical marijuana in Nebraska.”
Evnen’s office declined to comment. Attorneys for Kuehn did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Funke wrote that circulators and notaries serve different roles. The court decided that Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong did not err in deciding not to extend the standard in a 1919 Supreme Court case from circulators to notaries.
In that case, Barkley v. Pool, justices said a circulator’s fraudulent behavior could be extended to other actions, invalidating more signatures they collected. Funke pointed to a North Dakota Supreme Court case that few courts nationwide, if any, have extended wrongdoing in one notarization to others.
Separately, Hilgers’ office secured misdemeanor convictions against a circulator from Grand Island and a notary public from York. The circulator pleaded guilty, and a jury convicted the notary in February. The notary is appealing his convictions.
Kuehn, Evnen and Hilgers named other circulators and notaries who they alleged committed wrongdoing, including Eggers. No other charges came in the past two years.
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