Proposition 8 Donors Challenge Campaign Finance Laws

UPDATED: As a reader commented, I agree that death threats are not acceptable behavior on any account. I would add, however, that give the extreme dishonesty of the Christianist organizations, I believe that (1) claims of death threats should be checked out and confirmed to not be contrived threats from Christianist allies so that the Christianist/Mormons can play the role of victims (2) there are no reports of physical violence against anti-gay bigots while in contrast LGBT citizens are being physically attacked and in some cases killed as a result of the toxic lies put out by the professional Christian set which create a mindset where violence against gays is acceptable. In short, the Christianists/Mormons can dish it out, but as soon as they have it boomerang back on them they are cry babies. Here are a few highlights from a further Associated Press story on the lawsuit:

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The secretary of state's office and another defendant, the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuit. But Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, the gay rights group that led the campaign against Proposition 8, called it hypocritical for supporters of the measure to try to overturn voter-approved campaign finance laws.

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He said Proposition 8 supporters used campaign finance records during the campaign to threaten gay rights supporters."They've used these records to attack corporations, to attack individuals," Kors said.

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Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, which supports public access to government records and meetings, said the lawsuit is likely to be unsuccessful. He said courts have consistently failed to agree that contributors have a right to donate directly and anonymously to a candidate or campaign. He said some states have less restrictive reporting requirements, but they always include disclosure of donors.

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Obviously preferring to keep their anti-gay bigotry cloaked in secrecy, some of the Christianists/Mormons who bank rolled the effort to pass Proposition 8 have filled a federal lawsuit challenging California's campaign finance laws which requires that donors' names over a certain amount be made public so that the public knows who is trying to influence legislation. Here in Virginia, the thresh hold for donors being identified in campaign finance reports is $100.00. Personally, I believe that if someone is afraid to be identified with the causes and issues they support, then perhaps they ought not make a contribution. Not so with the Christianist/Mormon cry babies. Not only are they liars, but now we know that they are cowards as well who want to be able to anonymously take away the civil rights of other citizens. Such a system of anonymous donors is frightening and dangerous for democracy. No doubt they'd like to bring back courts of Star Chamber for gays and other minorities they don't like as well. Hopefully, the court will summarily throw out the lawsuit. Here are some highlights from the Sacramento Bee:

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The Proposition 8 campaign has filed a federal suit challenging the constitutionality of California's campaign finance laws that compel disclosure of personal information by campaign donors who they said have been threatened and harassed.

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The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, cites numerous examples of menacing e-mails, phone calls and postcards, including death threats, allegedly made by opponents of the November ballot measure that banned same-sex measure in the state.

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"This harassment is made possible because of California's unconstitutional campaign finance disclosure rules," Ron Prentice, chairman of the Yes on 8 campaign, said in a prepared statement.

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Prentice noted that as applied to ballot measure committees, "even donors of as little as $100 must have their names, home addresses and employers listed on public documents."