Friday, January 30, 2009

I See London, I See France, I Will See Who Voted for Prop 8


Poor 'Yes on Prop 8' supporters. They just lost the ability to hide their names from the donors' list. After complaining they were being harassed for donating towards oppression, they wanted to basically change the law.

But the courts wasn't hearing it, saying that we have the right to see who donates to what cause.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld campaign disclosure laws in 1976 but ruled in 1982 that the Socialist Workers Party in Ohio could shield its donors' names because of a history of attacks and reprisals.

Protect Marriage argued that it was entitled to the same exemption because of retaliation against some of its contributors, but lawyers for the state said the two cases weren't comparable. They noted that the Prop. 8 campaign raised nearly $30 million from 36,000 donors.

If the Prop. 8 campaign was exempted from disclosure because of reports of harassments of individual donors, said Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini, the same case could be made for any controversial initiative. Courts would have to "keep the entire California electorate in the dark as to who was funding these ballot measures," he said.

So folks, the moral or the story is: you can oppress, but you can't hide.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.