Nebraska medical cannabis lawsuit might not be resolved by Election Day, judge says

LINCOLN — A Lancaster County District Court judge said Friday that the ongoing legal challenges to Nebraska’s two medical cannabis ballot measures might not be resolved by Election Day.

Judge Susan Strong, during a virtual hearing Friday, proposed dividing the trial set to start Oct. 29 into two parts. Under the proposal, attorneys for Secretary of State Bob Evnen and John Kuehn, a former state senator and former State Board of Health member who launched the lawsuit, would need to first prove there are enough questionable signatures.

The challenges would need to prove that a sufficient number of signatures are invalid based on allegations of technical or clerical errors, circulator fraud or malfeasance. If a sufficient number of signatures were successfully challenged, the ballot sponsors would have the opportunity to show proof that some signatures were genuinely collected and should not be tossed.

“If it’s the latter situation and we have to proceed to phase two, we’re talking about going beyond the date of the election,” Strong said Friday. “I don’t know whether we can help that at this point because the timeline is already extremely tight.”



https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/10/11/nebraska-medical-cannabis-lawsuit-might-not-be-resolved-by-election-day-judge-says/