Mississippi Supreme Court Bans Ballot Initiatives While Nixing Medical Marijuana Newsweek 3 hrs ago Aila Slisco © 24K-Production/Getty Mississippi’s Supreme Court invalidated a voter-approved initiative that would have legalized medical marijuana on Friday. This undated file photo shows a hand striking a gavel with marijuana flowers and hemp seeds nearby.
Mississippi s Supreme Court on Friday blocked voters from using ballot initiatives on a technicality while striking down a voter-approved initiative that would have legalized medical marijuana.
In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that because the state constitution mandates that ballot initiative petitioners must collect signatures from voters in five Mississippi congressional districts, while the state has only had four districts following the 2000 census, no ballot initiatives since 2000 are legally valid.
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A former legislative leader who was not enamored with the stateâs initiative process used to call it âgovernment by Barabbas,â referring to the prisoner from the Bible the crowd voted to pardon rather than Jesus when given a choice by Pontius Pilate.
Unfortunately, the story has been twisted in a disturbing manner through the years to promote antisemitism. That was not the intent of the legislator.
He was arguing that sometimes there is a thin line between pure democracy and mob rule, and that the initiative process has the danger of bumping up against that line.
He said he would trust decisions made by the people if they had the time and ability to gather the information he was privy to as a legislator. But without that time and ability, he feared what the initiative could lead to a type of mob rule â government by Barabbas, he called it in off the record comments. That argument might be buoyed by recent events regarding the stateâs initiative process.