sjbouza
01-30-2009, 09:46 AM
From Joe.My.God
Court: Prop 8 Donor List To Remain Public
A federal judge has ruled that donors to Proposition 8 will continue to have their names made public.
"If there ever needs to be sunshine on a particular issue, it's a ballot measure," U.S. District Judge Morrison England said after a one-hour hearing in his Sacramento courtroom. A lawyer for the Prop. 8 campaign said it would ask an appeals court to modify or overturn the law, which requires disclosure of all contributors of $100 or more. The federal lawsuit, unrelated to the validity of Prop. 8, was filed Jan. 8 by the ballot measure's sponsoring committee, Protect Marriage. The suit said Internet disclosure of donors' names and other identifying information in state-mandated reports has led to consumer boycotts, picketing and even death threats.
By requiring disclosure, "the government is getting in the middle (of the issue) and saying, 'Here are the people to go after,' " Richard Coleson, a lawyer for the committee, told England. He argued that the $100 disclosure requirement - adopted by California voters in 1974 - should be struck down, modified to raise the dollar limits, or at least not applied to Prop. 8's contributors. As a first step, Coleson said, the campaign should be exempted from the state's post-election contribution report, due next Monday. Otherwise, he said, in future initiative campaigns "you will have donations dry up, and one side will be able to overcome another by intimidation and not be persuasion."
The supporters of Prop 8 are particularly upset by EightMaps.com, a Google Maps mash-up with the official public records which identify individual donors by street location.
What I find so interesting about this whole issue of them wanting the donor list to be secret is that they are doing the same thing they accuse us of doing. They are trying to get those "activist judges" to over rule the popular vote of the people. They want their cake and eat it too. They don't want us to use the courts, telling us that it is the will of the people that said no to same sex marriage. Now they turn around and cry foul when, by a vote of the people, the names of donors are made public.
Just another showing of the hypocrisy of the other side. They want the same "activist judges" that they have been yelling about for god knows how long to protect their "rights". When it is to their advantage they want the same protections that they are fighting against for us. How cannot they see the hypocrisy in that?! It just amazes me sometimes!
When we try to get the wrongs that are done to us dealt with in the courts, we have an agenda. When they do it, they are "standing up for their rights."
Of course they are appealing the decision. Once again trying to use those "horrible activist judges" to make "new laws".
Peace,
Scott
Court: Prop 8 Donor List To Remain Public
A federal judge has ruled that donors to Proposition 8 will continue to have their names made public.
"If there ever needs to be sunshine on a particular issue, it's a ballot measure," U.S. District Judge Morrison England said after a one-hour hearing in his Sacramento courtroom. A lawyer for the Prop. 8 campaign said it would ask an appeals court to modify or overturn the law, which requires disclosure of all contributors of $100 or more. The federal lawsuit, unrelated to the validity of Prop. 8, was filed Jan. 8 by the ballot measure's sponsoring committee, Protect Marriage. The suit said Internet disclosure of donors' names and other identifying information in state-mandated reports has led to consumer boycotts, picketing and even death threats.
By requiring disclosure, "the government is getting in the middle (of the issue) and saying, 'Here are the people to go after,' " Richard Coleson, a lawyer for the committee, told England. He argued that the $100 disclosure requirement - adopted by California voters in 1974 - should be struck down, modified to raise the dollar limits, or at least not applied to Prop. 8's contributors. As a first step, Coleson said, the campaign should be exempted from the state's post-election contribution report, due next Monday. Otherwise, he said, in future initiative campaigns "you will have donations dry up, and one side will be able to overcome another by intimidation and not be persuasion."
The supporters of Prop 8 are particularly upset by EightMaps.com, a Google Maps mash-up with the official public records which identify individual donors by street location.
What I find so interesting about this whole issue of them wanting the donor list to be secret is that they are doing the same thing they accuse us of doing. They are trying to get those "activist judges" to over rule the popular vote of the people. They want their cake and eat it too. They don't want us to use the courts, telling us that it is the will of the people that said no to same sex marriage. Now they turn around and cry foul when, by a vote of the people, the names of donors are made public.
Just another showing of the hypocrisy of the other side. They want the same "activist judges" that they have been yelling about for god knows how long to protect their "rights". When it is to their advantage they want the same protections that they are fighting against for us. How cannot they see the hypocrisy in that?! It just amazes me sometimes!
When we try to get the wrongs that are done to us dealt with in the courts, we have an agenda. When they do it, they are "standing up for their rights."
Of course they are appealing the decision. Once again trying to use those "horrible activist judges" to make "new laws".
Peace,
Scott