History of Marsy's Law crime victim rights ballot measures
Marsy's Law describes a set of constitutional protections for crime victims that have been proposed and adopted in some states. The model constitutional amendment released by the organization Marsy's Law for All, which closely resembles amendments proposed and passed in several states, includes the following key provisions:
- The right to be notified about and present at proceedings;
- The right to be heard at proceedings involving release, plea, sentencing, disposition, or parole of the accused;
- The right to have the safety of the victim and victim's family considered when making bail or release decisions;
- The right to be protected from the accused;
- The right to be notified about release or escape of the accused;
- The right to refuse an interview or deposition at the request of the accused;
- The right to receive restitution from the individual who committed the criminal offense.
The model amendment states that the Marsy's Law definition of victim includes both the person directly harmed by a crime and "any spouse, parent, grandparent, child, sibling, grandchild, or guardian, and any person with a relationship to the victim that is substantially similar to a listed relationship."[1]
Background
The effort to institute Marsy's Law across the U.S. has been primarily backed by Henry Nicholas, co-founder of Broadcom Corporation. Henry's sister, Marsalee ("Marsy") Nicholas, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. A week later, Henry and his mother encountered Marsy's ex-boyfriend at a grocery store after he was released on bail; Henry and his mother were unaware of his release. In 2009, Henry founded Marsy's Law for All LLC, the national organization advocating for Marsy's Law. The organization describes its mission in the following way: "Marsy’s Law for All seeks to amend state constitutions that don’t offer protections to crime victims and, eventually, the U.S. Constitution to give victims of crime rights equal to those already afforded to the accused and convicted."[2]
Marsy's Law in the states
As of August 2025, 12 states had adopted Marsy's Law. While voters in Kentucky, Montana, and Pennsylvania, approved Marsy's Law, courts later overturned the ballot measures. In Kentucky, voters approved a second Marsy's Law in 2020.
Tennessee voters will decide a constitutional amendment on November 3, 2026, which would adopt Marsy's Law in the state.
Henry Nicholas and Marsy's Law for All, along with the organization's state branches, provided financial support for the ballot measures.
The map below illustrates the status of victim rights constitutional amendments, including Marsy's Laws, across the United States:
States that overturned Marsy's Law after voter approval
Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, in a 3-2 decision, ruled that the Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment violated the state’s separate-vote requirement for constitutional amendments. On December 21, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the commonwealth court's decision. Pennsylvanians voted on Marsy’s Law at the election on November 5, 2019. The ballot measure received 74% of the vote. Results were never certified for the ballot measure pending the court case.
Kentucky
A majority of Kentucky voters (62.81%) approved a Marsy's Law amendment in 2018. A circuit court judge blocked votes on the amendment from being certified after the court found that the ballot language failed to "inform the electorate of the substance of the amendment." The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling on June 13, 2019, meaning the Marsy's Law amendment was not enacted.
In 2020, voters in Kentucky approved Marsy's Law for a second time, with the new ballot measure including the complete text of the amendment.
Montana
In 2017, the Montana Supreme Court struck down a Marsy's Law initiative as unconstitutional. The court ruled that, by requiring a single yes or no vote on multiple issues, the initiative did not give voters the chance to be heard on each proposed constitutional change.[3] For more information on the case and ruling, click here.
Campaign finance
The table below shows contributions in support of Marsy's Law ballot measures that were certified for the ballot through March 2020. Ballotpedia identified $115.56 million in total contributions to the support campaigns for the 15 Marsy's Law ballot measures. For detailed campaign finance information, click on the titles of the ballot measures in the table below.
Marsy's Law efforts
2020 measures
The Kentucky Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment was on the ballot in Kentucky as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020. It was approved. Marsy's Law was approved in 2018 but was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court because the amendment's full text was not submitted to voters. The 2020 ballot question included the full text of the amendment.[4]
The Wisconsin Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment was on the ballot in Wisconsin as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on April 7, 2020, where it was approved. Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin led the campaign in support of the ballot measure.[5]
2019 measure
The Pennsylvania Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment was on the ballot in Pennsylvania as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 5, 2019. A majority of electors voted to approve the ballot measure. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court enjoined Acting Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar from certifying election results, pending a court ruling in League of Women Voters of PA and Haw v. Boockvar on whether the amendment violates the state constitution's requirement that separate amendments receive separate votes. On January 7, 2021, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that the ballot measure violated the separate-vote requirement for constitutional amendments and that results could not be certified. On December 21, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the commonwealth court's ruling.
2018 measures
While five out of the six Marsy's Law measures that were approved before 2018 were citizen initiatives, all six of the measures on the ballot in 2018 were referred to the ballot by state legislators or, in the case of Florida, by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC). Electors in each of the six states voted to approve the amendments.
In 2018, the following measures to enact Marsy's Laws appeared on the November ballot:
| 2018 Marsy's Law measures | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Ballot measure | Status | ||
| Florida | Amendment 6 | 
| ||
| Georgia | Amendment 4 |
| ||
| Kentucky | Marsy's Law Amendment | 
| ||
| Nevada | Question 1 |
| ||
| North Carolina | Marsy's Law Amendment |
| ||
| Oklahoma | State Question 794 |
| ||
In South Dakota at the 2018 primary election on June 5, voters decided whether or not to approve alterations proposed by the legislature to the Marsy's Law initiative that they approved in 2016. The proposed alterations—found in Constitutional Amendment Y—were proposed following a compromise with Marsy's Law for All, which supported Amendment Y.
The $29.7 million contributed to the support campaigns for the six pre-2018 Marsy's Law measures was surpassed by contributions in support of one measure in 2018: Florida Amendment 6. As of November 2018, about $37 million had been contributed to Marsy's Law for Florida from the Marsy's Law for All Foundation and Henry Nicholas.
In Florida, constitutional amendments require 60 percent supermajority approval at the ballot to be enacted. Florida Amendment 6 was a combination of three proposals. The other two proposals related to the state judiciary.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Marsy's Law for All. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Marsy's Law for All
- California Proposition 9, Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Amendment (2008)
- Montana Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights Initiative, CI-116 (2016)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Marsy's Law for All, "A Model Constitutional Amendment To Afford Victims Equal Rights," accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ Marsy's Law for All, "About Marsy's Law," accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ Montana Supreme Court, "Opinion and Order," November 1, 2017
- ↑ Kentucky State Legislature, "SB 15 Overview," accessed February 25, 2020
- ↑ Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin, "Homepage," accessed May 17, 2019
