Marsy’s Law is terrible public policy. “[A] hobby farm for an eccentric California billionaire,” as former state Supreme Court Justice Sandstrom told me during the 2016 election cycle when voters cast their ballots overwhelmingly for the constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, I think North Dakota voters were bamboozled by slick campaign (Kelsey Grammer!) funded exclusively from California by…
Lacee Anderson: Port Throws Marsy’s Law Under the Bus
Rob Port’s latest attempt to throw Marsy’s Law under the bus as a “tragic mistake” is ill-advised and uninformed. Port references a recent incident involving a police officer who invoked his Marsy’s Law rights after shooting a member of the public who allegedly attacked him. Among the many erroneous assumptions Port has made in his…
North Dakota’s Initiated Measure Reformers Should Look to Montana
I’m not exactly a fan of legislating at the ballot box, or direct democracy generally. But in particular, I don’t believe it’s a good idea to enact complicated public policy merely through a vote of the people. Does anyone really believe that harried voters, already asked to be informed on national and state and local…
The Bismarck Tribune Was Right to Publish the Name of Officer Who Invoked Marsy’s Law
Last week I posted about an incident from Bismarck where an officer involved in shooting a member of the public who was allegedly attacking him invoked Marsy’s Law to hide his identity from the public. Marsy’s Law is the supposed “victims rights” amendment to the state constitution passed by voters last year. Among the bad…
North Dakota Voters Made a Tragic Mistake When They Approved Marsy’s Law
Last year, after an intense campaign funded exclusively by California billionaire Henry Nicholas, North Dakota voters approved a sprawling amendment to the state constitution called Marsy’s Law. It was billed as a “victim’s rights” bill, but critics (me among them) pointed out that the feel-good legislation would be hugely problematic in practice. “The North Dakota…
It’s Not Constitutional to Ban Out of State Money for Initiated Measures
A committee convened by the Legislature to review the initiated measure process met this week, and it seems they’re taking a long and hard look at the amount of money from outside the state which has funded some recent measures. The obvious example is the Marsy’s Law ballot measure, a horrible idea ramrodded through the…
We Can’t Have Justice if We Don’t Scrutinize Accusers
Yesterday I wrote a post responding to outrage over comments made by Robert Hoy, defense attorney for James Patrick Whalen, a Grand Forks teacher who recently pleaded guilty to charges related to a sexual relationship he had with a 16 year old female student. Many in the media were outraged that Hoy brought up the…
The Initiated Measure Process Has Not Served North Dakota Well
Today the Bismarck Tribune editorializes against a push by lawmakers a bill creating a commission tasked with reviewing our state’s initiated measure process (it passed in the state Senate this week), “The initiated measure process has served North Dakota well and the Legislature should tread lightly when considering changing it,” the paper writes. Only, that’s not…
It’s Time to Take Marsy’s Law to Court
Last year the voters approved Marsy’s Law, a constitutional amendment which will supposedly make our legal system more just by giving victims and their families rights. Nearly every facet of our state’s legal community – from cops to prosecutors to defense attorneys to judges – opposed the ballot measure arguing that it could create real headaches for…
Let’s Face It: Marsy’s Law Is a Mess, and Initiated Measures Are Dumb
Earlier this week I wrote about law enforcement authorities in South Dakota deciding that they can no longer report the locations of crimes because of amendments to their state constitution from Marsy’s Law. That state’s voters cast their ballots for that law the same as North Dakota’s voters. A further complication is that, apparently, the…