Florida’s Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for next month in a case that will decide whether a marijuana legalization initiative will appear on the state’s 2024 ballot.
Over the past several months, the court has been receiving briefs from both the state attorney general, who filed a legal challenge against the cannabis measure and is asking for it to be invalidated, and the Smart & Safe Florida campaign, which is behind the proposed reform.
Attorney General Ashley Moody’s (R) main argument is that the ballot initiative is affirmatively misleading, in part because she says voters would not be able to understand from the summary that marijuana would remain federally illegal even if Florida moved to legalize.
The campaign and supporters have maintained that the court must respect the intent of the citizen initiative process and allow voters the opportunity to decide on the issue after they turned in nearly one million signatures for ballot placement that have been certified by the state. They’ve defended the clarity of the measure.
Now that the key arguments and responses from both parties have been submitted through briefs, the court announced on Tuesday that it is scheduling a hearing on the dispute for November 8.
Florida’s Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for next month in a case that will decide whether a marijuana legalization initiative will appear on the state’s 2024 ballot.
Over the past several months, the court has been receiving briefs from both the state attorney general, who filed a legal challenge against the cannabis measure and is asking for it to be invalidated, and the Smart & Safe Florida campaign, which is behind the proposed reform.
Attorney General Ashley Moody’s (R) main argument is that the ballot initiative is affirmatively misleading, in part because she says voters would not be able to understand from the summary that marijuana would remain federally illegal even if Florida moved to legalize.
The campaign and supporters have maintained that the court must respect the intent of the citizen initiative process and allow voters the opportunity to decide on the issue after they turned in nearly one million signatures for ballot placement that have been certified by the state. They’ve defended the clarity of the measure.
Now that the key arguments and responses from both parties have been submitted through briefs, the court announced on Tuesday that it is scheduling a hearing on the dispute for November 8. (Full Story)