State ex rel. Wagner v. Evnen

Summary

The Nebraska Supreme Court considered a preelection challenge to the legal sufficiency of a proposed constitutional amendment concerning medical cannabis. The court held that the initiative violated Nebraska's constitutional single-subject rule because provisions granting private entities rights to grow and sell cannabis were not naturally and necessarily connected to the primary purpose of creating a right for qualifying individuals to produce and use cannabis medicinally. The court granted a writ of mandamus directing the Secretary of State to withhold the initiative from the November 2020 general election ballot.

Holdings

1. A preelection challenge to the procedural legal sufficiency of a ballot initiative is ripe, even though a substantive challenge based on the contingent event of the initiative's passage would not be ripe.
2. Under Neb. Const. art. III, § 2, an initiative violates the single-subject rule when its provisions do not have a natural and necessary connection with one general subject; the general subject must be defined by the initiative's primary purpose at a level of specificity permitting meaningful review.
3. The NMCCA was legally insufficient because subsections (3), (4), (6), (7), and (8) contained secondary purposes not naturally and necessarily connected to the primary purpose in subsections (1) and (2), resulting in unconstitutional logrolling.
4. Mandamus was warranted because Wagner had a clear right to relief, the Secretary of State had a corresponding clear nondiscretionary duty to withhold a legally insufficient initiative, and no other plain and adequate remedy was available.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Wagner's preelection challenge to the legal sufficiency of the NMCCA was ripe.
2. Whether the NMCCA violated Neb. Const. art. III, § 2, because its provisions contained multiple subjects that were not naturally and necessarily connected.
3. Whether the Secretary of State had a nondiscretionary duty to withhold the legally insufficient initiative from the ballot.
4. Whether Wagner could obtain both declaratory relief and a writ of mandamus.

Disposition

writ_granted