LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) — On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed a challenge to two voter-approved medical cannabis petitions.
The 7-0 ruling came in a nearly 50-page opinion from Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke.
“After considering all the evidence presented and arguments made by Kuehn and the Secretary, the court determined that they had not shown that enough signatures lost their validity to render the petitions legally insufficient,” the judges wrote in their decision.
Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, said after the decision, “This was never about protecting Nebraska law. It was about whether a handful of elected officials could use the courts to override the will of the people. Today, our state’s highest court stated the obvious: they cannot.”
Attorney General Mike Hilgers said in a statement on Friday, “Today is a sad day for election integrity in Nebraska. The medical marijuana petition effort used fraud to get on the ballot and abused the notary process and the laws of the state. We disagree with the court’s ruling but will follow the law as it stands.”
Laura Strimple, the spokeswoman for Governor Jim Pillen, wrote in a statement on Friday, “Governor Pillen approved permanent regulations for medical marijuana this summer. The Medical Cannabis Commission will continue to carry out its work in accordance with the will of the people who voted to support legalizing medical marijuana in Nebraska.”
The decision comes almost two years to the day after former state Sen. John Kuehn filed a legal challenge in Lancaster County District Court to invalidate the two medical cannabis petitions passed by Nebraska voters in 2024.
Kuehn believed Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana did not have enough valid signatures to be on the 2024 ballot. He claimed that tens of thousands of signatures required to get those initiatives on the ballot were invalid, repeatedly alleging fraud by the petition circulators and improper notarization.
Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers later joined Kuehn in his lawsuit.
There were signatures invalidated across those two petitions due to notarial malfeasance and fraud.
Jacy Todd was convicted in Hall County on 23 counts of official misconduct and one count of making a false statement under oath, all misdemeanors. Todd was a notary for both medical cannabis petitions. He is appealing his conviction.
Grand Island paid circulator Michael Egbert pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to falsely swear to a circulator’s affidavit, according to reporting from the Nebraska Examiner. Egbert admitted to copying names out of a phone book to add signatures to the petitions.
Lancaster County Judge Susan Strong ruled in November 2024 that Kuehn didn’t have legal standing to sue.
Kuehn took the case to the Nebraska Supreme Court. In early December 2025, the court heard arguments from both sides.
One of Kuehn’s attorneys, Andrew LaGrone, said the petition “must fall unless the genuineness of the signature is affirmatively shown.”
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said at the time, “People don’t try this hard to destroy something that doesn’t matter.”
Daniel Gutman, their attorney, said Kuehn could only win by invalidating signatures, which they could only do if “the court adopts a false-one, false-all maxim that no other court in the country has adopted.”
Nebraskans overwhelmingly voted in support of legalizing medical marijuana, with each petition getting more than 65% of voters in favor.
Lincoln Senator Danielle Conrad told 10/11, “It is long overdue to put this painful, messy, disappointing chapter behind us and to get on with doing the people’s business.”
Conrad also called for Hilgers and the state to refund taxpayers for this “ridiculous litigation.”
Amid recent discussions of changes to the state’s ballot petition process, Justice Stephanie Stacy wrote in her concurrence Friday, “We often say that the right of initiative is precious to the people and is one which the courts are zealous to preserve to the fullest tenable measure of the spirit and letter of the law.”
Neither the Attorney General or Governor Jim Pillen have responded to requests for comment.
You can read the full Supreme Court decision here:
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