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A federal judge gave a campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Nebraska a second wind on Monday, siding with the activists in a lawsuit over the state\u2019s signature gathering requirements for ballot measures.<\/p>\n
With about three weeks left before the July 7 deadline to turn in enough valid petitions to qualify a pair of reform measures for the ballot, U.S. District Judge Joh Gerrard issued a preliminary injunction against the state, barring officials from enforcing a requirement that activists collect signatures from a minimum of five percent of voters in at least 38 counties across the state.<\/p>\n
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) and the ACLU of Nebraska sought the relief through a lawsuit<\/a> filed last month as the prospects of getting ballot qualification dimmed due to the loss of critical campaign funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n Activists argued that the geographical signature requirement is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, unnecessarily suppressing the ability of citizens to put issues on the ballot by giving outsized influence to people living in remote, rural areas of Nebraska.<\/p>\n The judge sided with the campaign, and also had some sharp words for the secretary of state and attorney general, which in their filing had suggested that the 38-country rule is \u201cinseverable from the general initiative power\u201d and, without it, the entire citizen initiative process would need to be invalidated.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the State to argue that the baby must go with the bathwater is eyebrow-raising,\u201d the ruling<\/a> states. \u201cThe Court disagrees with the Secretary: The right of initiative is, the Court finds, a fundamental right that the citizens of Nebraska possess, so the State may not discriminate against them in their exercise of that right.\u201d<\/p>\n The order is preliminary, so there\u2019s still a chance that the overall case challenging the requirements might not turn out in activists\u2019 favor and that their efforts through the beginning of next month could end up being for nought, but the court said that it issued the temporary injunction because it feels that the activists \u201care likely to succeed on their Equal Protection claim.\u201d<\/p>\n BIG NEWS: Thanks to our lawsuit, a judge just blocked an unconstitutional roadblock in our state\u2019s ballot qualification process. https:\/\/t.co\/QABBowBvWF<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/9dlm2wJVsv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ACLU of Nebraska (@ACLUofNE) June 13, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Sen. Anna Wishart (D), campaign co-chair for NMM, said<\/a> in a press release that the court order is \u201ca big win for all the Nebraskans fighting for years to legalize medical cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNebraskans across the state support this issue because they know a loved one, friend or neighbor who is sick and would benefit from having access to medical cannabis,\u201d she said. \u201cThey deserve a vote in November.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Adam Morfeld (D), another proponent of the legalization initiatives, said that this is \u201can important development for the medical cannabis campaign, but it\u2019s also so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n This is an incredibly consequential decision that safeguards Nebraskans right to petition in a constitutionally sound way. We will continue our signature collection efforts to legalize medical marijuana! https:\/\/t.co\/C8AcqU7ApX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 State Senator Adam Morfeld (@Adam_Morfeld) June 13, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cThe right to petition our state government for change is sacred\u2014it\u2019s fundamental to good governance,\u201d he said, adding that the court order will help protect Nebraskans\u2019 political power in this critical stretch ahead of a final decision, and it suggests we\u2019re doing what we need to do to win this lawsuit and permanently end Nebraska\u2019s unconstitutional multicounty signature distribution requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n NMM announced last month that it was restructuring its plan to put medical marijuana legalization on the ballot after losing key funding. The campaign had aimed to raise $1 million so that it could hire paid signature canvassers, but after the death of one key donor and terminal diagnosis of another, the campaign is left with just about $30,000 on hand.<\/p>\n Supporters held a virtual press conference last month to detail their new plan to qualify a pair of cannabis initiatives<\/a>\u00a0for the November ballot.<\/p>\n One initiative would require lawmakers to codify protections for doctors who recommend cannabis and patients who purchase and possess it. The other would mandate legislative action to safeguard marijuana businesses that supply the product.<\/p>\n The reason that the measures are narrowly tailored and bifurcated is because activists want to avoid the type of legal challenge that led the state Supreme Court to invalidate a prior medical cannabis legalization measure that they successfully collected more than enough signatures for to qualify for the 2020 ballot.<\/p>\n The court ruled that year that the initiative\u00a0violated the single-subject rule for ballot measures<\/a>\u00a0because it took a comprehensive approach to setting regulations for the program.<\/p>\n For each of the new 2022 initiatives, activists will need to collect about 87,000 valid signatures. Activists said early last month that they\u2019d gathered about 25,000.<\/p>\n \u2014 Lawmakers attempted to advance medical cannabis reform legislatively last year, but while the unicameral legislature debated a bill to legalize medical marijuana in May,\u00a0it failed to advance past a filibuster<\/a>\u00a0because the body didn\u2019t have enough votes to overcome it.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the campaign is also facing resistance from Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), a staunch opponent of legalization. Late last year, he\u00a0partnered with the prohibitionist group SAM Nebraska on an ad<\/a>\u00a0urging residents to oppose cannabis reform in the state.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Nebraska\u2019s attorney general argued in an opinion in 2019 that efforts to legalize medical marijuana legislatively in the state\u00a0would be preempted by federal law<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cwould be, therefore, unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n Maine\u2019s Legal Marijuana Stores Are Effectively Displacing Illicit Market, State Report Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Federal Court Sides With Nebraska Medical Marijuana Activists In Lawsuit Over Ballot Requirements<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A federal judge gave a campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Nebraska a second wind on Monday, siding with the activists in a lawsuit over the state\u2019s signature gathering requirements for ballot measures. With about three weeks left before the July 7 deadline to turn in enough valid petitions toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":55242,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55243,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55241\/revisions\/55243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Federal Court Sides With Nebraska Medical Marijuana Activists In Lawsuit Over Ballot Requirements<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"