Judge: Prop. 8 donors have no right to anonymity

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

A federal judge says donors to the $40 million campaign that banned same-sex marriage in California aren't entitled to the anonymity that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted to minor parties operating in a hostile climate.

Only organizations like the Socialist Workers Party during the Cold War and the NAACP in the segregated South - "small, persecuted groups whose very existence depended on some manner of anonymity" - have been exempted from laws requiring that members and contributors be disclosed, U.S. District Judge Morrison England said Friday.

He said there is no evidence that the 7 million Californians who voted for Proposition 8 in 2008 could be considered a "fringe organization" with unpopular or unorthodox views, or that leaving donors in the public record would frighten away contributors to future campaigns.

England's written ruling followed his decision at an Oct. 21 hearing in Sacramento to dismiss a lawsuit by committees that backed Prop. 8 seeking an exemption from the state law that makes public the names of all who contributed $100 or more.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/07/BA0Q1LRL5E.DTL

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England is a GW Bush nominee who has served since 2002.

[WillParkinson]

1. Freaking activist judges...

:sarcasm:

[NMMNG]

2. Good

They spent all that time declaring that they were "standing up for their beliefs". Why then do they demand anonymity? Let them stand out in the open and defend their actions instead of hiding like cowards as they abuse a minority.

[MADem]

3. Gotta love it. nt

[Charlemagne]

4. Quote from the article

"An aggressive minority can intimidate a much larger group of peace-loving and law-abiding citizens," Bopp said.

Hmmm....pretty sure that is exactly what Bopp was trying to do with prop 8.

[truedelphi]

6. Makes my head spin when they do that.

Thanks for sharing that aggravating quote.

I am firmly convinced that Prop 8 succeeded only because of fraudulent votng machinery or fraudulent vote counting.

[msanthrope]

10. No self-introspection, whatsoever. That's how these people exist. nt

[SoapBox]

5. Yes!

...good news.

[Iliyah]

7. One group, a religous

one - the Mormon church gave a huge amount of money, advertisement as well as general leg work to go into the local churches to get young people to walk the neighborhoods with signs which a great many of them quoted "Bible" passages. They also told the members that gays were going to change their children into gays, etc.

[No Elephants]

8. Duh. If contributors to political campaigns have no right to anonymity, why should bigots?

About damned time this ruling came down.

[msanthrope]

9. Can't hide your bigotry. nt

[Hotler]

11. k&r n/t