Marsy’s Law Advocates Will ‘Continue to Fight’ After Supreme Court Decision
The Montana Supreme Court struck down the recently approved victim’s rights law known as Marsy’s Law this week in a decision that Marsy’s Law for Montana State Director Chuck Denowh called “disappointing”
"It was an extremely disappointing ruling, not just for those of us that worked to pass Marsy's law, but the over 300,000 Montana voters who voted in favor of Marsy's law," Denowh said. "It passed by a two-to-one margin. So, overwhelming Montanans want crime victims to have equal Constitutional rights with their offenders and that's what the court took away yesterday."
The Montana Supreme Court decision was based on the law creating multiple changes to the state constitution when it should have created just one, an issue Denowh describes as a “technicality.”
"This was thrown out on a technicality, it didn't have anything to do with the policy or the underlying language of Marsy's law, this was thrown out because a court said the ballot qualification process was done incorrectly, so, we're not done, we're going to continue to fight, crime victims in Montana deserve to have these rights."
Denowh said the path for Marsy’s law now is still unclear and that approaches through the courts, through the legislature or through other citizen’s Initiatives are currently being considered.