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MISSISSIPPI SUPREME COURT MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW


Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler on Oct. 26 filed a challenge to ballot Initiative 65 on medical marijuana, saying it was not properly before voters (who passed it) in November per the state constitution.


The state Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear oral arguments in the legal battle between Butler and Secretary of State Michael Watson, with many people and groups signing on with one side or the other as “amicus” or friendly participants.


What’s the argument?

Butler argues that the ballot initiative language added to Section 273 of the state constitution in 1992 requires proponents to gather signatures evenly from five Mississippi congressional districts — with no more than 1/5, or 20% coming from any single district. Problem is, Mississippi has had only four congressional districts since the 2000 Census showed it lost population. Therefore, Butler argues, it’s a “mathematical certainty” that of the nearly 106,000 certified voter signatures collected from what are now four districts to put Initiative 65 on the ballot last year, signatures from at least one of the districts surpasses 20%.

Butler’s lawyers also note that there have been at least seven unsuccessful attempts in the Legislature to address the issue, and that other parts of the constitution either refer to congressional districts “as now existing” or referring to their makeup at a specific date.









-- Article credit to Geoff Pender of Mississippi Today --


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