Donor list remains public

[sjbouza]

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

[u-dog]

Its part of a larger phenomenon in our culture. People believe that they are entitled to an opinion on issues but that they don't have to take responsibility for holding or defending those opinions. The fact is that a person only has a right to express those opinions to which they are willing to sign their names.

If a person doesn't have the courage of their convictions ... then they need to keep those convictions to themselves. This includes convictions that expressed with one's checkbook.

[Emproph]

From the above article:

the Prop. 8 campaign said it would ask an appeals court to modify or overturn the law … adopted by California voters in 1974

From the Prop 8 website itself:

Proposition 8 ... Because four activist judges in San Francisco wrongly overturned the people’s vote … in 2000 by over 61% of California voters

I'm going to start calling them genuinely hypocritical, they've earned it.

[Emproph]

I think he's talking about the new list, here. Whatever the case, it's new donor info.

Prominent Mormons Were Reimbursed For Prop 8
Tue Feb 03, 2009

[tdogg]

THe prior list included anyone donating $25,000 or more. The new list will include donors of $100 or more. Lots more names. Funny how the Prop 8 donors want to hide, while the No on 8 donors are happy to have their names public.

[Jennifer5]

Originally Posted by Emproph

I think he's talking about the new list, here. Whatever the case, it's new donor info.

Prominent Mormons Were Reimbursed For Prop 8
Tue Feb 03, 2009

Half a million is a shocking amount... no wonder they wanted to hid this.

There is a reason why people point their fingers at the person screaming the loudest... their guilty.

[Emproph]

Via Pam's House Blend:

^Check out the link to see what 83 million can buy.

Donors spent over $83M in Prop. 8 race
The Monterey County Herald
Updated: 02/03/2009 01:35:34 AM PST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Donors gave more than $83 million to support or oppose the ballot initiative that abolished same-sex marriage in California, according to campaign disclosure reports made public Monday.

The new filings cover the weeks immediately before and after the Nov. 4 election. They show that elected officials, businesses, churches and individuals poured more than $28 million into the race during the contest's closing days.

The final tallies show that opponents of Proposition 8 raised $43.3 million in 2008 and had a little more than $730,000 left on hand at year's end. The measure's sponsors raised $39.9 million and had $983,000 left over.

Even before the late contributions were added in, the race already had become the most expensive ballot measure on a social issue in the nation's history. Proposition 8 passed with 52 percent of the vote. Gay marriage backers have asked the California Supreme Court to overturn it. More...