In a victory for public disclosure, a federal judge ruled against ProtectMarriage.com and the National Organization for Marriage California, and anti-gay conservative and religious groups who sought to conceal the names of donors to the campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California:
“They had asked the judge to block disclosure of late donors, who gave in the final weeks of the campaign or shortly after the election. The state is scheduled to release that report on Monday. They also asked him to order the state to remove the names of all contributors to Proposition 8 that already had been posted on the secretary of state’s Web site. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. sided with the state. In his ruling from the bench, England said California’s campaign disclosure laws are intended to protect the public and are especially important during expensive initiative campaigns. ‘If there ever needs to be sunshine on a political issue, it is with a ballot measure, England said. He said many campaign committees have vague names, obscuring their intent. The public would have no way of knowing who is behind the campaigns unless they can see who’s giving money, he said.”
Said Geoff Kors of Equality California: “We are thrilled that the Court is requiring the Yes on 8 Campaign to play by the same rules and is preventing them from their attempt to circumvent the law.”
Fred Karger, of Californians Against Hate, also responded to the decision: “The Court today did the right thing by upholding California’s 35 year old Political Reform Act. The law requires that all contributors of $100 and above to state campaigns be reported and available to the public. Every California campaign has abided by this law for over three decades. It is truly unfortunate that in the heat of a campaign donors are subjected to any undue attention. This has sadly been the case on both sides of last November’s highly emotional Proposition 8 campaign. But the law passed by the voters in 1974 has served our state well all these years and must remain in place…The Mormon Church and all the other major supporters of Proposition 8 knew the law when they qualified their Constitutional Amendment for the November ballot and must abide by it. The Mormon Church basically required over 60,000 of its members throughout the country to give nearly $25 million to take away the right to marry for same-sex couples in California. After winning their very deceitful campaign by only 4% points, they now hoped to keep the names secret of another 6,600 donors who must be reported on Monday, February 2nd. This is despicable.”
