Nebraska Judge Could Dismiss Lawsuit Targeting Cannabis Ballot Measures This Week

This week, a Nebraska judge intends to decide on a motion to dismiss a lawsuit attempting to prevent a pair of medical cannabis legalization measures from appearing on the November ballot.

Lancaster County District Court Judge Susan Strong said Sept. 20 that she hopes to work “as expeditiously as possible” to resolve claims that signatures certified by Secretary of State Bob Evnen were invalid, the Nebraska Examiner reported.

Former state Sen. John Kuehn, who represented Nebraska’s 38th District from 2015 to 2019, is challenging the validated signatures in a lawsuit filed Sept. 12, the day before Evnen certified a pair of petitions sponsored by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) as sufficient to go before voters.

A longstanding prohibitionist, Kuehn argues in the lawsuit that “numerous signatures … are invalid and were unlawfully accepted by the secretary,” suggesting that certain signers were not registered to vote, signed a petition more than once or did not properly fill out their information on the petition.

RELATED: Former Nebraska Senator Files Lawsuit Challenging State’s Medical Cannabis Ballot Initiatives

The lawsuit names Evnen as well as NMM sponsors Crista Eggers, state Sen. Anna Wishart, and former state Sen. Adam Morfeld as defendants.

In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, NMM’s legal team said Kuehn’s requests are the “equivalent of a recount,” and that Kuehn believes “he is best equipped to make important election decisions currently left to the sound discretion of our election experts.”

Sponsored by NMM, Initiative 437 intends to protect medical cannabis patients from criminal charges and prosecution by legalizing up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis, while Initiative 438 aims to adopt state law to establish a framework for a regulated medical cannabis marketplace with licensed businesses regulated by a Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission.

In asking for judicial relief, Kuehn requested that the court act as quickly as possible to rule that the initiatives are legally insufficient and invalid or to prevent the Nov. 5 election results for the initiatives from being certified.

Strong said Sept. 20 that she hopes to resolve the claims before the election.

“Though I understand we don’t have to,” she said during an initial briefing. “I think that would be the best course.”

In addition to questioning signatures, the lawsuit claims Wishart violated state law by failing to disclose her full address as a sponsor for the petitions.

NMM released a public statement Sept. 20 regarding the lawsuit.

“It is unfortunate that an extremely small minority of individuals have taken it upon themselves to attempt to silence the voice of the people,” Eggers said in the release. “We have long been fighting for Nebraska’s most vulnerable patients, including our children and elderly, who are continuing to suffer through painful medical conditions after other treatments have failed, and when medical cannabis—an evidence-based treatment for many ailments—is accessible to patients one state over in every direction.”

Eggers’s 9-year-old son battles severe epileptic seizures. Her cannabis advocacy work comes as Nebraska is one of nine prohibitionist states in the U.S. that does not have a medical cannabis program to any degree.

Upon certifying the NMM initiatives on Sept. 13, Evnen said each petition collected more than 89,850 signatures, nearly 3,000 more than the roughly 87,000 valid signatures needed to appear on the ballot.

Evnen’s certifications came just hours after Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers held a press conference to announce an investigation in Hall County that led to felony charges against an individual accused of signature-collecting fraud.

“I am certifying the petitions because, at this point, they appear to have met the threshold signature requirements,” Evnen said in a press release. “That could change in light of the attorney general’s investigation. Both cannabis petitions will appear on the ballot, but a court could order later that the initiatives be thrown out.”

In light of the investigation in Hall County, Eggers said NMM remains grateful for the “outstanding work” done by county election officials.

As far as Kuehn’s lawsuit, this isn’t the first legal challenge to NMM’s yearslong medical cannabis legalization fight.

In 2020, the Nebraska Supreme Court struck down the group’s petition after it had already been certified for the ballot because its justices ruled that the initiative dealt with two subjects: legalization and setting up a system to cultivate, sell and distribute products. That’s why the group put forward two initiatives in 2024—to satisfy the state’s single-subject rule.

“Despite widespread support of medical cannabis from all ages, demographics and political affiliations, we are not surprised by the lawsuit, brought by those who want Nebraskans to continue to suffer,” Eggers said. “We stand committed to bringing access to safe and regulated medical cannabis to Nebraska patients.”

Roughly 70% of Nebraskans support legalizing medical cannabis, according to a February 2024 poll conducted for Neilan Strategy Group.