15 State Attorneys General File Brief Opposing Lawsuit To Help Put Medical Marijuana On Nebraska Ballot

“We will not be intimidated and we will not back down.”

By Aaron Sanderford, Nebraska Examiner

Attorneys basic from 15 conservative-led states submitted a temporary this week backing Nebraska’s lawful struggle to help you save a state constitutional requirement that men and women petitioning a measure on to the ballot need to acquire signatures from much of the condition.

The temporary was submitted in a federal civil legal rights lawsuit brought May perhaps 16 by Nebraskans for Healthcare Marijuana and ACLU Nebraska towards Secretary of Point out Bob Evnen (R), arguing that the state’s geographic prerequisite dilutes the “one man, a person vote” price of signatures of city Nebraskans by offering additional pounds to signatures from rural Nebraskans.

The 15 states argue that federal judges have a constrained position in examining “state-established systems” governing elections. States make equivalent arguments to defend gerrymandering, the potential of states to attract political boundaries to political edge.

The states in the temporary argue that Nebraska’s need can be fulfilled lawfully. The transient inquiries whether a decrease courtroom experienced the authorized appropriate to enjoin the requirement without having showing realistic troubles that the necessity established for the initiative system.

“The Structure safeguards the appropriate to vote for one’s associates in the republican form of federal government it assures,” the lawyers general wrote. “It does not regulate an solely state-established ideal to immediate democracy by using ballot steps.”

The Nebraska Constitution involves people circulating petitions for ballot initiatives to gather signatures from 5 p.c of registered voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties. A point out charm restored the prerequisite when the federal lawsuit against it progresses.

“No issue what county we dwell in, our signatures on a petition really should have equal bodyweight,” ACLU Nebraska attorney Jane Seu said. “Nothing in this new amicus short offers a compelling argument as to why Nebraskans should really proceed to be deprived of equal power.”

The states backing Nebraska’s circumstance are Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.

Nebraska Lawyer Standard Doug Peterson (R) stated the transient from other states “demonstrates that the district court’s determination threatens to give federal courts the electric power to micromanage states’ initiative procedures.”

“We enjoy their attempts to deliver these issues to the Eighth Circuit’s attention,” Peterson stated.

Condition Sen. Adam Morfeld (D) of Lincoln, co-chair of the work to enable voters pick out no matter if to legalize professional medical marijuana, explained the other states’ brief as “an unparalleled attack” on “Nebraskans’ suitable to have a constitutional ballot initiative course of action.”

“We won’t be intimidated and we will not back again down,” he explained.

The petition team turned in 93,000 and 91,000 signatures July 7 for two ballot initiatives needed to legalize health care marijuana. About 87,000 legitimate signatures are required.

The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Business office claimed Thursday it expects to finish verifying the petition signatures in August.

New briefs are due quickly in the attractiveness of an Eighth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals ruling to pause or remain the short-term injunction that a lessen court docket granted towards the state’s geographic necessity.

This story was to start with revealed by Nebraska Examiner.

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Photograph courtesy of Philip Steffan.