The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously that former state Senator John Kuehn of Heartwell did not have legal standing to challenge the state's voter-approved medical cannabis laws. Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke wrote in a 29-page opinion that Kuehn could not proceed under either taxpayer standing or standing based on a matter of great public concern.
Nebraska Supreme Court blocks former senator's challenge to medical cannabis laws
The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously that former state Senator John Kuehn of Heartwell did not have legal standing to challenge the state's voter-approved medical cannabis laws. Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke wrote in a 29-page opinion that Kuehn could not proceed under either taxpayer standing or standing based on a matter of great public concern.
Kuehn filed his case in December 2024 and last amended it in June 2025, arguing that Nebraska's medical cannabis laws are unconstitutional because they conflict with federal law, which classifies marijuana as a controlled substance. Kuehn conceded he had not suffered direct injury from the laws but sought to use narrow exceptions to the standing requirement.
Standing requires a litigant to prove they have suffered an injury in fact by the time a case is filed or later amended. Funke explained that standing refers to whether a party has a personal stake in the litigation's outcome that would warrant a court's exercise of jurisdiction on their behalf.
In June 2025, Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong dismissed Kuehn's case. The week before the Supreme Court's ruling, the same court had affirmed the validity of Nebraska's medical cannabis laws in another unanimous decision from Funke, rejecting Kuehn's preelection challenge filed in September 2024.
Nebraska voters approved medical cannabis legalization in 2024 with 71 percent support, according to Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the group that led the campaign. The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission has licensed four cultivators, and Gov. Jim Pillen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers signed off on initial regulations this summer. The commission is rewriting regulations to add fees before licensing product manufacturers or dispensaries, with legal access to purchase still months or longer away.
In April 2025, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche downgraded federally licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, reducing its classification from a drug with no accepted medical use to one with moderate to low potential for dependence. This reclassification occurred after Kuehn filed his preemption appeal, and neither attorneys nor justices raised the shift in federal guidance during oral arguments in April.
- The source does not state whether Kuehn or his attorneys plan to refile the case or attempt to bring it again if circumstances change.
- The source does not explain what specific new circumstances might trigger a future successful standing claim.
- The source does not detail the grounds of Kuehn's preelection challenge filed in September 2024 or how it differed from the preemption argument.
- The source does not state whether the Nebraska Attorney General's Office's threatened lawsuit against the Medical Cannabis Commission was formally withdrawn or simply abandoned.
- The source does not identify which federal lawsuit the Attorney General's Office joined that challenges the DOJ's rescheduling of marijuana.
Read the original at Marijuana Moment