Supreme Court Rejects Christofascist Effort to Hides of Anti-Gay Donors

For a second time the United States Supreme Court has rejected efforts on the part of Christofascists to keep the names of anti-gay donors hidden from the public.  State law requires that the names of financial donors of $100  during or after a campaign be listed, along with the donor's address, occupation and employer.  The Supreme Court upheld the state law requirement and ProtectMarriage.com, the National Organization for Marriage and other supporters of Proposition 8 will need to be disclosed.  Here are highlights from Talking Points Memo:

The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from same-sex marriage opponents in California who want to keep the identities of their campaign donors secret.

The justices on Monday let stand a lower court ruling against ProtectMarriage.com, the National Organization for Marriage and other supporters of a 2008 ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriages in California until the ban was overturned five years later.

The groups sought to conceal their past and future campaign finance records because they feared harassment of donors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them in part because the names have been publicly available for five years.

State law requires political committees to identify those who contribute more than $100 during or after a campaign, along with the donor's address, occupation and employer.

While the Christofascist groups claim their donors will face possible harassment, the real issues are twofold: (i) their donors don't want their friends and neighbors to know what bigoted assholes/hypocrites they are and (ii) the organizations don't want the public to know that they are largely bankrolled by a small handful of extremist donors.  In a previous ruling, even Justice Scalia supported public disclosure of donors.

I for one have no use for those who are too cowardly to attach their names to their actions - hence why I do not publish anonymous comments, most of which seem to come from spittle flecked "godly Christian" types.  In my view, if you are going to take political and social positions, you'd damn well better be willing to stand up and be identified by name.  The husband and I never cower from having our names attached to issues we support.