Mississippi justices toss voter-backed marijuana initiative

[Nevilledog]

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Sarah Fowler
@FowlerSarah
For those outside of Mississippi, you may not be seeing the responses from voters on social with this decision. People are angry. A lot of work went into getting it on the ballot in the first place. And remember, 70% of voters approved Initiative 65.

Mississippi justices toss voter-backed marijuana initiative
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court on Friday overturned a medical marijuana initiative that voters approved last fall. Six justices ruled that the medical marijuana initiative is...
apnews.com
12:08 PM · May 14, 2021

https://apnews.com/article/ms-state-wire-mississippi-marijuana-health-4f81d577aeb2ed8a04849f62c86c707e

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi will remain in the minority of states without a medical marijuana program after the state Supreme Court on Friday overturned an initiative that voters approved last fall — a decision that also limits other citizen-led efforts to put issues on the statewide ballot.

Six justices ruled that the medical marijuana initiative is void because the state’s initiative process is outdated. Three justices dissented.

The initiative process was added to the Mississippi Constitution in the 1990s as Section 273. It requires petitioners trying to get any initiative on the ballot to gather one-fifth of signatures from each congressional district. Mississippi had five congressional districts at the time that was written. But the state dropped to four districts after the 2000 Census, and language dealing with the initiative process was never updated.

“Whether 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,” Justice Josiah Coleman wrote for the majority in the ruling Friday. “To work in today’s reality, it will need amending — something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.”

In a strongly worded dissent, Justice James Maxwell wrote that he believes the secretary of state correctly put Initiative 65 on the ballot. Maxwell wrote that the majority opinion “confidently and correctly points out” that the Supreme Court cannot amend the state constitution.

*snip*

[Midnight Writer]

1. About a 7 hour drive to Illinois. We'll take money from Mississippi. And the other Southern States.

Legalization makes money and saves money for the States where it is legal.

I guess places like Mississippi have money to burn.

PS While you're here, spend some money on our food, our hotels, our gas, and our other shopping opportunities. We'll treat you right.

[dsc]

2. and of course they let the voter ID amendment

which passed the very same way with the same alleged deficiency stay.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

6. I was going to post

That since this was invalid, that means all initiatives passed since they went to 4 seats are invalid aren’t they?

[edhopper]

3. Keep voting in the GOP

Mississippians, you will be a perpetually poor, ill-governed State that is last in the Nation at almost everything but racism.

[LonePirate]

12. I'm sorry for MS DUers but this is what happens when voters continually elect Republicans.

That party does not give a damn about the people in this country.

[Haggard Celine]

4. The Mississippi government makes me fucking sick!

I voted for that initiative last election day, and we were so glad to see it pass and by the percentage it passed. This is nothing but corruption at its core. The liquor lobby has a lot of power here, and so does the casino lobby, which would also be affected if we started legalizing weed. That's okay, next time we'll get an initiative to make recreational weed legal. I think it would pass. We're sick of our patrician government telling us what's best for us and ignoring our wishes.

[gratuitous]

5. The language of the voter initiative petition section is impossible to satisfy

Section 273 was adopted in 1990, when Mississippi had five congressional districts. Mississippi now has four congressional districts. The amendment was intended to force initiative petition gatherers to get signatures from each of the then-five districts, getting no more than one-fifth of the total signatures required from any single district. That means that initiative petition signature gatherers can get no more than four-fifths of the total number of signatures required to qualify an initiative petition.

The Mississippi Supreme Court is 100% correct: It's up to the legislature to change the state constitution on this point, because as it's now written in a state with only four congressional districts, it's impossible for a citizen-generated initiative petition to qualify for the ballot.

Article 273(3):

The signatures of the qualified electors from any congressional
district shall not exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of signatures
required to qualify an initiative petition for placement upon the ballot.
If an initiative petition contains signatures from a single congressional
district which exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of required
signatures, the excess number of signatures from that congressional district
shall not be considered by the Secretary of State in determining whether
the petition qualifies for placement on the ballot.

[Nevilledog]

8. Yup.

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Ashton Pittman
@ashtonpittman
·
May 14, 2021
A whopping 73% of Mississippians voted FOR medical marijuana in 2020.

The MS Supreme Court just struck the will of those voters down today—along with the ENTIRE ballot initiative process.

They also killed initiatives already underway for early voting & Medicaid expansion.

Ashton Pittman
@ashtonpittman
The court's ruling: The decades-old ballot initiative law says that petitioners must collect a certain number of signatures from each of the state's 5 congressional districts.

But since 2000, we've only had 4 districts. On this technicality, they neutered our initiative process.
1:29 PM · May 14, 2021

So what ballot initiatives have passed since 2000?

[Volaris]

16. Well, that's a stupid way to do that to begin with, imo.

A ballot initiative should be simple, i.e., to get 20% signatures of the total number of voters in the last election.

If theres one HYPROCRASY from the GOP that pisses me off like no other, its shit like this: they love them some local control, UNTIL that control messes with their state-wide power. You cant hate top-down power in only one direction; that's not how that works.

[gratuitous]

18. The public policy requirement can be debated

The district requirement may have been instituted so that all the signatures didn't come from one or two urban areas (although when a state's biggest city has fewer than 58,000 people, well . . .). It might also have been a hedge against the wrong people (if you know what I mean) getting a citizen initiative on the ballot without significant support from all areas of the state. Requiring support for an initiative from all areas of the state could be considered good public policy.

But it apparently never occurred to the legislature that the state might someday lose a congressional seat. Or, if it did occur to them, the inelegant language of Section 273 may have been a poison pill for somewhere down the line to deprive the citizens of their power to promulgate initiative petitions. It is once again up to the state legislature to craft a replacement amendment if they still want citizens to have the power to put forward initiative petitions.

In this case, with a very popular initiative struck down, the legislature might have to reckon with a large majority of citizens seeing their votes invalidated versus any desire they might have to reserve the amendment process to themselves. This time, perhaps they can draft an amendment with more adaptable language that will anticipate and adjust for changing circumstances, or leave the congressional district requirement out altogether.

[Volaris]

19. First Paragraph:

Fair enough argument.
Second Paragraph: that's because they're dumbass republicans.
Third paragraph: hopefully, this means electing a legislature that isnt completely composed of self-important, dumber-than-hammers asshole Republicans.

[Mysterian]

7. Right wing assholes hate democracy

The star chamber has the final say, peons.

[Celerity]

9. Johnny Reb shithole state government/judiciary is going to Johnny Reb shithole

[Wounded Bear]

10. You'd think they would learn eventually...

It's mind over matter. Repubs don't mind and voters don't matter.

[dalton99a]

11. Elections Don't Matter

is what they're saying

[Dawson Leery]

13. I would never live in Mississippi,

or Saudi Arabia.

[shanti]

15. I was going to say...

Reason 16, 587 as to why I'd never live there. I'll stay my happy ass in California!

[Volaris]

17. If you put a gun to my head, I'd honestly have to think about it...

Full Disclaimer is that I have a penis, and SA probably has a more efficient education and healthcare system right now....

[rockfordfile]

14. Vote them out. Vote every right-wing pos out in Mississippi

[Progressive Jones]

20. GOP election fraud prevents that. All GOPs are crooks. NT