Dear Friends, 

A lot of people have been wondering what has been going on with the medical marijuana petition given the recent legal actions against the campaign by former Senator John Keuhn and now the Secretary of State and Attorney General.

Normally, as I advise my clients, we let the process play out in court and leave public opinion to the pundits. That being said, the Attorney General's and Secretary of State's actions and legal positions are so egregious and extreme they pose a clear and present danger to the entire constitutional right for Nebraskans to exercise their constitutional right to petition. 

We support law enforcement investigating fraudulent behavior and prosecuting those who intentionally engaged in it, but we do not support the AG and SOS using that as pretext to attack our initiative and the entire constitutional right to petition.

From the AG and SOS's briefs and sensational statements, you would think there were widespread fraud, when in fact there allegedly appears to be one rogue collector who allegedly defrauded the campaign and a notary who allegedly notarized incorrectly in violation of our training.

They are seeking to throw out nearly 100,000 valid signatures due to alleged notary administrative errors on just a few petitions, which they then claim invalidates the presumption of validity on ALL of the petitions they notarized. This goes against all court precedent not just in Nebraska but across the country. If the Court were to adopt the SOS and AG's position, even innocent administrative mistakes by a notary would result in the ability to take down most ballot initiatives based on innocent adminstrative mistakes.

If this is their position, then why has the Secretary of State and Attorney General not investigated and extended the same position to the over 300 Nebraskans who signed affidavits to remove their names from the anti abortion initiative because they said they were deceived by those circulators? I think we know the answer to that question and scenario. 

There is no precedent in any Nebraska court or any other state in the country that has allowed this, and for good reason: It violates the rights of those who validly sign the petitions, and it would essentially eviscerate the initiative petition process and make it so regular Nebraskans or even well funded ones would not be able to successfully run any ballot initiative. 

You can view our entire legal brief here, my thread explaining this with citations from the brief here, and a recent Nebraska Examiner article here. 

We will continue to fight these actions by the Secretary of State and Attorney General to undermine the initiative petition process and unfairly demean the efforts of Nebraskans to exercise their constitutional rights. 

Thank you for all of your support, 

Adam Morfeld
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Co-Sponsor

P.S. if you want to support our legal efforts you can donate here.