The latest attempt is to silence Nebraskans’ voices, which are overwhelmingly in favor of safe and legal access to medicinal cannabis.
By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner
An ex-state senator filed a second appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court to challenge the voter-approved laws on medical cannabis in Nebraska.
John Kuehn, former state senator from Heartwell and member of the State Board of Health, has filed a brief appeal Saturday. He is a staunch opponent of marijuana. Kuehn wants the Nebraska Supreme Court, without the Nebraska Court of Appeals as an intermediate step, to take the appeal. It has not been decided yet whether the courts will hear this appeal.
Kuehn argues that federal marijuana laws are inconstitutional and invalidate the voter-approved 2024 laws legalizing and regulating medical cannabis.
In a one-page filing, it states: “Plaintiff may appeal directly to Supreme Court as his case questions the constitutionality Nebraska’s laws.”
Lancaster County District judge Susan Strong, on June 26, ruled Kuehn couldn’t prove “injury” in fact (also called “standing”) due to the medical marijuana laws.
Strong did not agree with Kuehn’s claims that taxpayer money would be used to enforce the laws. Employee time was also mentioned as a factor. The laws were also deemed a major concern by the public.
Nebraska, as well as other states, is not short of citizens-taxpayers who have strong political views. Strong wrote: “This is not necessarily something bad.” It would be bad for all of those citizens to sue every time a law required a government worker to do something.
Kuehn believes that Nebraska is not allowed to have a program for medical cannabis because federal law has classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. Schedule I drugs are those that federal law deems to have a high abuse potential and do not have any accepted medical use. Since decades, advocates from both sides of the political spectrum have called for this drug to be rescheduled.
Nebraska and nearly 40 other states have medical marijuana programs in place.
Kuehn argues, too, that the formation of the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission – whose members are listed in the suit – is an illegal delegation of legislative authority.
This case names the governor as well. Jim Pillen, Secretary of State Bob Evnen and State Treasurer Tom Briese along with Tax Commissioner Jim Kamm, were the main ballot sponsors for the election in 2024.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and his office who represent the defendants from the state had requested that the case be dismissed.
The AG’s Office, however, did this after pledging that it would sue the Medical Cannabis Commission as soon as the commission began licensing medical marijuana establishments and making arguments similar to Kuehn. Licenses must be issued by October 1, 2018.
In September, the Nebraska Supreme Court will consider a separate case from Kuehn Evnen Hilgers, which seeks to invalidate medical cannabis laws. In that case, Evnen’s team and ballot sponsors are accused of not having enough valid signatures in order to put the ballot measures on 2024 ballot.
Strong presided in that case earlier and ruled on the ballot measures last November. Around 71 percent of Nebraskans chose to legalize marijuana, while about 67 percent chose to regulate it.
Crista Eggers is the executive director of Nebraskans For Medical Marijuana. The 2024 campaign which ushered the new law in, and she said that the legal challenges continue to be “nothing short of abuse of power.”
Eggers, in a public statement, said that the latest “appeal” was just another desperate move to silence Nebraskans’ voices, which overwhelmingly favor safe, legal medical access to cannabis. “We won’t be intimidated.”
Nebraska Examiner was the first to publish this story.
Photograph by M. A. N. U. E. L.