{"id":511377,"date":"2021-05-15T13:05:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T17:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=511377"},"modified":"2021-05-15T13:05:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T17:05:58","slug":"mississippi-supreme-court-strikes-down-voter-approved-medical-marijuana-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mississippi-supreme-court-strikes-down-voter-approved-medical-marijuana-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmississippi-supreme-court-strikes-down-voter-approved-medical-marijuana-initiative%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=511377&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Marijuana.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>On Friday, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative that passed with overwhelming support in November.<\/p>\n<p>In what NBC News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/mississippi-supreme-court-overturns-voter-approved-marijuana-initiative-n1267472\">described<\/a> as \u201can odd flaw in the state constitution\u2019s voter initiative process,\u201d the state\u2019s high court ruled 6-3 that the proposal, known as Initiative 65, was improperly placed on the ballot last year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.djournal.com\/news\/state-news\/mississippi-supreme-court-strikes-down-medical-marijuana-ballot-initiative\/article_9d4ce873-a7bd-5dfc-820f-417d4f4df424.html\">According<\/a> to the Daily Journal, \u201cThe court found that the Constitutional provisions for a voter referendum require that signatures be gathered equally from five congressional districts.\u201d The state, however, only has four congressional districts after losing one seat following reapportionment after the 2000 U.S. Census. Lawmakers never updated the constitution\u2019s language. The outlet reports that the court\u2019s decision \u201cinvalidated\u2026the ability of voters to directly amend the state constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress,\u201d wrote Justice Josiah Coleman in the majority opinion. \u201cTo work in today\u2019s reality, it will need amending \u2013 something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the dissent, Justice James Maxwell said the majority opinion \u201cconfidently and correctly points out\u201d that the high court could not amend the state constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet the majority does just that \u2013 stepping completely outside of Mississippi law \u2013 to employ an interpretation that not only amends but judicially kills Mississippi\u2019s citizen initiative process,\u201d wrote Maxwell.<\/p>\n<p>Mississippi was the first state in the Deep South where residents chose to legalize marijuana for medical use, with 73% of voters supporting Initiative 65 last fall. The proposal required the state Health Department to create a medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Mississippi Supreme Court just overturned the will of the people in Mississippi,\u201d said Ken Newburger, executive director for the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association. \u201cPatients will now continue the suffering that so many Mississippians voted to end. The Court ignored existing case law and prior decisions. Their reasoning ignores the intent of the constitution and takes away people\u2019s constitutional right. It\u2019s a sad day for Mississippi when the Supreme Court communicates to a vast majority of the voters that their vote doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mississippi-health-marijuana-97c9debc3096386144c609e31c4c8387\">According<\/a> to the Associated Press, Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler, a Republican, filed the lawsuit days before the election and opposed Initiative 65 \u201cbecause it limits a city\u2019s ability to regulate the location of medical marijuana businesses.\u201d The AP reported, \u201cState attorneys defended the initiative process by arguing that Mississippi has two sets of congressional districts \u2013 the current four for electing U.S. House members and the old five that are used for other purposes, including the appointment or election of people to other government jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur case was about the constitutional separation of powers,\u201d Butler said in a statement issued to the AP on Friday. \u201cThe city is pleased that the Supreme Court followed the plain language of the Mississippi Constitution and recognized that, unfortunately, the current voter initiative process is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The AP went on to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/article251422778.html\">report<\/a>, \u201cLegislative leaders have not said clearly why they have not updated the initiative process in the 20 years since Mississippi lost a congressional seat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative that passed with overwhelming support in November.In what NBC News described as \u201can odd flaw in the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278223,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Marijuana.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Mississippi Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Initiative","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Marijuana.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Mississippi Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Initiative","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}