{"id":56937,"date":"2022-09-01T04:58:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T12:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/09\/01\/federal-appeals-court-rejects-nebraska-medical-marijuana-campaigns-challenge-to-ballot-initiative-rules\/"},"modified":"2022-09-01T10:45:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T18:45:51","slug":"federal-appeals-court-rejects-nebraska-medical-marijuana-campaigns-challenge-to-ballot-initiative-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/09\/01\/federal-appeals-court-rejects-nebraska-medical-marijuana-campaigns-challenge-to-ballot-initiative-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Appeals Court Rejects Nebraska Medical Marijuana Campaign\u2019s Challenge To Ballot Initiative Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the dissenting opinion recognizes, the ability to petition our government for change is foundational to our democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit has reinstated the requirement in Nebraska that initiative petition drives must collect signatures of at least 5 percent of registered voters in two-fifths of the state\u2019s counties to qualify for the ballot.<\/p>\n

The 2-1 decision on Wednesday came in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Nebraska<\/a> on behalf of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. The lawsuit argued that the 38-county requirement gave too much power to the state\u2019s less populated counties, diminishing the power of voters in heavily populated counties, thus violating the equal protection clause of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

The marijuana group is seeking to qualify two initiatives for the November ballot to legalize marijuana products to treat epileptic seizures, pain and other maladies.<\/p>\n

Petitions failed to qualify<\/h4>\n

Earlier in August, the Nebraska Secretary of State determined that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana had failed to collect enough signatures<\/a> statewide to qualify, as well as falling short in the 38-state requirement. Last week,\u00a0the Secretary of State agreed to reconsider\u00a0validating more petition signatures<\/a> but said that still wouldn\u2019t be enough to qualify for the ballot.<\/p>\n

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In Wednesday\u2019s ruling<\/a>, the court\u2019s majority said it was already established precedent in the 8th Circuit that the right to place initiatives on the ballot is a matter of state law and is not specifically guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

Thus states have the power to determine how many signatures are needed and where the signatures should be gathered, wrote Appeals Court Judges Raymond Gruender and David Stras.<\/p>\n

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Dissent says precedent not \u2018clear cut\u2019<\/h4>\n

Appeals Court Judge Jane Kelly dissented, saying that past precedent wasn\u2019t quite that \u201cclear cut\u201d and that the right to vote on ballot initiatives was an \u201cintegral part\u201d of the election process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the right to vote is fundamental, I see no reason why it should not apply equally to the initiative process at the heart of Nebraska\u2019s electoral and legislative system,\u201d Kelly wrote in dissent.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard ruled in June that the marijuana group\u2019s challenge was likely to succeed. He issued an injunction against enforcement<\/a> of the 38-county requirement, which the Appeals Court reversed Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Jane Seu, an ACLU of Nebraska attorney, called the ruling \u201ctroubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the dissenting opinion recognizes, the ability to petition our government for change is foundational to our democracy,\u201d Seu said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cFor now, we will be taking time to carefully read through the decision and discuss our options. We are not giving up<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Mexico Is \u2018Falling Behind\u2019 Other Countries On Marijuana Legalization, Top Senator Says, But Congress Will Prioritize Reform In New Session<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel<\/a> and Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Federal Appeals Court Rejects Nebraska Medical Marijuana Campaign\u2019s Challenge To Ballot Initiative Rules<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cAs the dissenting opinion recognizes, the ability to petition our government for change is foundational to our democracy.\u201d By Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit has reinstated the requirement in Nebraska that initiative petition drives must collect signatures ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"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\/56937"}],"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\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56938,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56937\/revisions\/56938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}