Southside of the Nebraska State Capitol building. (Jeff Motz/KFOR News)LINCOLN–(KFOR Sept. 4)–The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday 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 J ustice Jeffrey Funke. The decision comes almost two years to the day after former Heartwell 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, claiming 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. But a Lancaster County judge ruled in November 2025 that Kuehn didn’t have legal standing to sue. He then took it to the State Supreme Court, who then upheld the lower court ruling on Friday. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said in a statement, “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.” 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.” ...read more read less