In Marbury v. Madison, the United States Supreme Court declared:

The Government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.

One of the key legal principles on which Marbury relies is the notion that for every violation of a vested legal right, there must be a legal remedy. Under existing North Dakota law, victims’ rights are not clearly enforceable – there are no express legal remedies if they are violated.

Marsy’s Law for North Dakota will change this. It will constitutionally guarantee victims’ rights and, in so doing, will also provide remedies that may be applied by the court. This is the kind of legal weight that accused criminals’ rights have and it is what victims’ rights deserve.

Marsy’s Law for North Dakota will preserve and protect the right of crime victims to justice, ensure crime victims a meaningful role throughout the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and ensure that crime victims’ rights and interests are respected and protected by law in a manner no less vigorous than the protections afforded to criminal defendants.