By Doug Porter
A decade ago Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin paid $200 and gained approval from the secretary of state’s office to gather signatures for the King James Bible as Textbook initiative, which would have amended the state Constitution to allow the Bible to be used as a textbook.
McLaughlin and his six supporters failed to gather the nearly six hundred thousand signatures necessary to put the measure on the ballot in 2004.
He’s come up with another $200, and given the poor voter turnout in the most recent election, he’s hoping his Sodomite Suppression Act can get the 365,000 signatures it needs to make it legal to summarily execute gay people in California.
From the New Civil Rights Movement:
McLaughlin calls homosexual sex “buggery,” and “sodomy,” and labels it “a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha [sic].”
He says that it’s “better” that non-gay Californians kill the gays rather than have to suffer God’s punishment.
“Seeing that it is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God’s just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating-wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.”
Some conservative websites are getting excited–not because they support the Act–as California Attorney General Kamala Harris, an announced candidate for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat in 2016, may legally be required to prepare a title and 100-word summary for the initiative.
Christopher Cadelago at the Sacramento Bee wrote about the mainstream turmoil created by the proposed ballot measure:
McLaughlin’s “Sodomite Suppression Act” now is testing the limits of free speech and raising the question: Why can’t the state’s initiative process screen out blatantly illegal ideas?…
…Yet the measure is likely to proceed to the signature-gathering stage. At the moment, its fate rests with state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is charged with writing a title and summary for the proposal. Legal experts say she has little choice but to let the process continue and that McLaughlin is unlikely to face professional repercussions.
Over the years, the $200 price tag for submitting an initiative has enabled California political activists to draft and submit thousands of orphan causes: eliminating divorce, requiring public schools to offer Christmas caroling, making criminals of those who lie during political campaigns.
Over 15,000 people have signed a petition at Change.org asking State Bar President Craig Holden to take steps to disbar McLaughlin. His fitness to practice law is also the subject of a letter from the Legislature’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus asking for an investigation.
DA Bonnie Dumanis: You Can Run But You Can’t Hide
San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has been in the news three times recently, although not along the lines her taxpayer-sponsored news center would like featured.
The DA lost big in court last week as San Diego Superior Court Judge Louis Hanoian tossed charges against rapper Brandon “Tiny Doo” Duncan and Aaron Harvey. The case gained national attention because the men were charged via an obscure legal statute that makes it a crime to be generally aware of gang criminal activity.
Dumanis doubled down after losing in court, saying the media had been “manipulated by individuals who are misrepresenting their true level of gang involvement.”
Voice of San Diego managing editor Sarah Libby called the DA out, saying the statements amounted to “master class in willfully missing the point”and quoting the UT-San Diego editorial spin:
She [Dumanis] expressed incredulity at depictions of Harvey as an upstanding young man who was being persecuted for growing up in the wrong part of town. For one example, her office cited a 2009 case in which police raided Harvey’s family home in Lincoln Park to rescue a girl being forced to work as a prostitute, finding a handgun and four rifles; his brother pleaded guilty to pimping charges.
Libby went on:
The DA’s office brought this 2009 case to my attention, too.
What it didn’t mention: Aaron Harvey was tried in connection with this case. He was found not guilty – it took the jury only an hour to decide. Think about this for a minute: A man was found not guilty of a crime, and yet the county’s top prosecutor is continuing to wield facts from the case against him. Her badmouthing is being repeated, unchecked, on television and in major newspapers.
Harvey might really be part of a gang. He could be a bad guy. The DA’s job, though, involves more than merely identifying who’s a bad person. A judge helpfully reminded her of that fact last week.
Dumanis a No-Show at Race Relations Forum
The newly freed defendants called upon supporters to attend a race relations town hall at the Martin Luther King Malcolm X Library on Sunday to demand changes to the law that left them temporarily facing lengthy prison sentences.
DA Dumanis, who was supposed to appear at the event, cancelled at the last minute.
From the Times of San Diego:
Harvey accused Dumanis of now using the obscure 15-year-old gang conspiracy law to pursue charges against 33 men stemming from a series of 16 shootings — rather than finding those that committed the crimes.
A dozen of those defendants, alleged members of a Southcrest-area gang, have already pleaded guilty to charges including attempted murder, robbery and possession of firearms, U-T San Diego reported.
“It does not matter that we are free. There are still 18 other young black men sitting in county jail under the same application of Penal Code 182.5. We will not back down until this law is off the books.”
Dumanis ‘Wins’ Sunshine Week Award
As part of national Sunshine Week, an annual event calling attention to transparency in governance, the San Diego District Attorney’s office and Bonnie Dumanis were named as a recipients of the Electronic Frontier Foundation “Follies” award.
I’ll let EFF’s Dave Maass open the envelope, via the Deep Links blog:
Most Passive-Aggressive Release of Records
San Diego County District Attorney’s Office
In early 2014, a Mexican national and his cohorts were arrested for allegedly illegally funnelling money into San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ campaign for mayor. The DA claimed she knew nothing about the donations, saying “I have nothing to hide,” and, indeed, public records requests for communications with or involving the donor turned up very little.
Then, during court hearings, it emerged that Dumanis had in fact written a college recommendation letter on behalf of the donor’s son. Immediately, the press filed requests under the California Public Records Act, demanding the document. Dumanis refused, claimingthat the letter was private correspondence, despite the fact that it used her official title and was written on her office’s letterhead.
Only when the press joined together to threaten a lawsuit, did the District Attorney release the letter—but not to the reporters who had asked for it. Instead, one TV station scored the exclusive by saying they supported her position and promising a friendly interview that would emphasize that she didn’t break the public records law.
The Audacity of Dope: Ted Cruz is Running for President
Senator Ted Cruz made it official this morning, becoming the first out-of-the-closet candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination.
Students at Liberty University, a must-do forum for politicos seeking office, attended at mandatory assembly to hear the big news, which Cruz had let “slip” on twitter earlier in the day.
From the Washington Post:
“Today, I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States,” Cruz said, about 20 minutes into a speech to students here. “Ted! Ted!” students yelled.
“It is the time for truth. It is the time for liberty. It is the time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States,” Cruz said.
The content of Cruz’s announcement speech — which embraced the goals of Christian social conservatives, military hawks and small-government tea partiers — illustrated the broad Republican coalition he is hoping to assemble. The location of the announcement, at an evangelical college, showed that Cruz hopes to mobilize young people behind a campaign that will start at the back of the GOP pack.
The Far Right Delights in Cruz
The campaign is expected to run to the far right of the political spectrum, causing dread among GOP officials and near-glee left of the aisle.
From Andrew Prokop at Vox.com
First of all, many Republican elites despise him for his loose-cannon approach. The Washington Post’s George Will has said that Cruz “is frankly loathed by the GOP caucus,” and that he “is completely indifferent to the fact that politics is a team sport.ABC’s Jonathan Karl said during the shutdown battle that Cruz is “so hated” by Senate Republicans that he’d “need a food taster” at their weekly lunch. Cruz will argue that he’ll take his case to rank-and-file activists, but party elites play an important role in choosing the nominee, so this will be a real difficulty for him.
From Hunter at Daily Kos:
None of this is to say that Ted Cruz won’t make his mark on the primaries, presuming his funding hasn’t already dried up at that point. He will likely play a key role in goading Jeb Bush into saying horrible things, or making Jeb Bush look reasonable by comparison, or acting as the guy who stands between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump so Jeb Bush doesn’t have to look at Trump so often. A noble cause, I suppose.
Gov. Brown Calls Cruz Unqualified
California Governor Jerry Brown appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press this weekend.
From NBC7:
California Gov. Jerry Brown tore into climate change skeptics on Sunday, saying one major presidential hopeful’s position on climate change should disqualify him from the highest office in the nation.
Brown warned that climate change would be a major issue for America’s next president in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” days after announcing a roughly $1 billion plan to combat California’s drought.
“That man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office,” Brown said, when asked about Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s claim that there isn’t a scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activity.
The Cruz Campaign’s First Gaffe
The Cruz campaign or somebody apparently missed the boat when it comes to registering web addresses that might be useful.
TedCruz.com pops up with a black screen and the words: “Support President Obama. Immigration Reform Now.”
And if you meander over to TedCruzforAmerica.com you’ll be redirected to HealthCare.Gov, where you can still sign up for ObamaCare.
Ooops. I hear the AudacityofDope.com was still available as of this morning.
On This Day: 1868 – Gov. Henry H. Haight signed the Organic Act, creating the University of California system. 1970 – Five days into the Post Office’s first mass work stoppage in 195 years, President Nixon declared a national emergency, ordering 30,000 troops to New York City to break the strike. The troops didn’t have a clue how to sort and deliver mail: a settlement came a few days later. 1987 – The Soul Train Music Awards debuted. It was the first televised awards ceremony to pay exclusive homage to black producers, songwriters and recording artists in the music industry.
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Vox Populi says
Is it a coincidence that Ted Cruz looks and sounds an awful lot like the late Senator Joe McCarthy? The moron is strong in this one…
michael-leonard says
The U-T editorial asserted that DA Dumanis had “voluminous information” that actually linked Duncan and Harvey to gang activity. Then why were they accused under the vague and likely unconstitutional statute 182.5? And, since they were indicted under that law, how can she then blame media for focusing on the “rap lyrics and social media posts” that they are accused for?
And citing the 2009 raid on Harvey’s family home, which led to a guilty plea by his brother and acquittal for Harvey, is simply another instance of attempted guilt by association.
Finally the editorial wants to have it both ways, opining that Dumanis is “applying the law as written” but also saying that “district attorneys [should] stick to more conventional prosecutions.”
This seems either to be incompetence by the DA’s office, or actual manufacture of a case with no standing. Either way, it doesn’t pass my smell test. Chalk up another failure for DA Dumanis, and a follow-up fail for U-T editorial writers.
Jeff_O says
Copy should read Malcolm X Library, not MLK.
Doug Porter says
Roger that. It’s fixed. Thx
Tom Hunter says
Bonnie Dumanis, crooked fundraiser, guilt by association, this is the best we can do to enforce the law? She’s the Enfarcer.
Lori Saldaña says
Doug- you make an excellent point re: the relatively easy, inexpensive process to change California’s constitution. The result: the state’s constitution has hundreds of amendments vs. the fewer than 30 in the US Constitution.
As you note: “given the poor voter turnout in the most recent election, he’s hoping his Sodomite Suppression Act can get the 365,000 signatures it needs to make it legal to summarily execute gay people in California. ”
This low turnout is just another “unintended” (?) consequence of discouraging more people to vote, and/or making it more difficult via voter ID laws, etc.
As Chris Cadelago mentions in his article, I introduced a few bills to make sure the fees charged to place initiatives under review actually cover the true state costs (a $200 charge for an Attorney General office review of complex constitutional issues?), and to hold signature gatherers to basic ethical training and standards. They are required to “act” ethically, and their employers are required to provide the training- but no one documents the practice.
Arguments against my bills: increasing the fee would discourage “grassroots/direct democracy” efforts- even though it’s been over 30 years since the last truly “grassroots” ballot measure succeeded in California.
And: Making the employment of signature gatherers more regulated and standardized would make it more difficult for these companies to find workers. I was told by several people, when the matter of ethics training came up: many (if not most) of the people gathering signatures live in the “shadow” economy, traveling around various states, and relying on the ballot measure process to survive. Other are not able/willing to accept more formal employment.
And finally: many prefer to receive paychecks as “independent contractors” to avoid regulations like background checks, paying taxes, liens, child/spousal support payments etc.
Something to keep in mind next time someone approaches you to sign a document that will impact millions of people…
Sarah R says
All I have to say about the bullet to the heads of the gays that’s bigot talk. What if gays were aloud to put a bullet to straight peoples head? Put yourself in the other persons shoes. I thought this was America land of the free. With you telling people who to love you are taking their freedom away, so unless you want to change America land of the free, to America land of the free only to the straights people, let people be with who they want to be with, and be free
bob dorn says
I agree with everything you’re saying, but let’s recognise this mean act of the Bible Lawyer for what it is, a rat-fuck. It demonstrates that many Christians are all for the politics of divide and conquer. They don’t mind expressing their hatred through sanctimonious Christian p.c. and those that do probably got a kick out of this weirdo’s
grab for fame. Desperation-anarchistic-fundamentalist politics is on the way out. It’s practitioners think they see the mountaintop nearing them. When they fall from grace they’ll think the ground is moving up to them.