Libertas Legislator Profiles


Legislator Profile: Senator Mark Madsen

Name: Mark Madsen
Type: Senator
Party: Libertarian
No longer in office

Libertas Legislator Index Rankings

The following rating measures how consistently this legislator votes in support of individual liberty, private property, and free enterprise. To learn more, see the main index page.

201420152016 Overall Rating
95%100%86% 94%

To see the specific votes used to rank this legislator, click the link in the table above for any of the yearly percentages listed.

Sponsored Ranked Bills

This legislator was the sponsor of the following bills, which were ranked by Libertas Institute in their respective year's Legislator Index.

  • SB73: Medical Cannabis Act (2016)
    This bill would have legalized medical marijuana in Utah.

    This bill passed the Senate 17-12 but died in a House committee on a 4-8 vote. Libertas Institute supports an "aye" vote, because patients are not criminals and the law must be changed to reflect that reality.
  • SB259: Medical Cannabis Amendments (2015)
    This bill would have legalized medical cannabis (marijuana) in Utah under a heavily regulated ecosystem of licensed growing, production, and dispensary facilities. Only select illnesses would have been allowed, along with select physicians matched to those illnesses. Numerous other regulations in the bill, such as security, background checks, inspections, licensure, and other provisions aimed to quell concerns in order to legalize this unfortunately controversial product.

    This bill failed in the Senate on a 14-15 vote. Libertas supports a "yea" vote.
  • SB226: Search and Seizure Amendments (2015)
    New technology allows police officers to see through the walls of one's home using a radar device. A Supreme Court ruling requiring a warrant to use such devices has been widely ignored by police departments around the country. This bill requires officers in Utah to obtain a warrant for their use, requires them to notify the target of the warrant that such a device was used to observe them, and requires officers to delete any data they obtain using such a device that does not pertain to the specific person or people named in the warrant.

    This bill passed both the Senate and the House unanimously. Libertas supports a "yea" vote.
  • SB290: Civil Actions Involving Law Enforcement Officers or Emergency Vehicle Operators (2015)
    In 2014, the Utah legislature passed a bill that inadvertently created absolute immunity from liability to fleeing suspects for police officers who pursued the suspect in violation of their department policy. This bill would have repealed the problematic language, restoring liability in cases of policy violations.

    This bill passed the Senate 18-9 but was not considered by the House. Libertas supports a "yea" vote.

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