Tuesday, January 31, 2012

And again, NOM loses another court appeal in Maine

From the Associated Press:

An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the state's campaign disclosure law that requires a national anti-gay-marriage group to release its donor list, but the group plans to take the fight to shield the list to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The decision pertains to ballot question committees in Maine and represents a second defeat for the National Organization for Marriage, which previously lost a challenge to the state's political action committee laws and laws governing independent expenditures and advertising attribution and disclaimers.

The latest appeal focused on part of the law that says groups that raise or spend more than $5,000 to influence elections must register and disclose their donors.

The NOM, which says it was founded in 2007 in response to the "growing need for an organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures," donated $1.9 million to a political action committee that helped repeal Maine's same-sex marriage law. It said it believes that releasing the donor list would stymie free speech.

"We already know that the homosexual lobby has launched a national campaign of harassment and intimidation against supporters of traditional marriage, so there's a good reason to keep these names confidential," said Indiana lawyer James Bopp Jr., who's representing the NOM.

Mary Bonauto, an attorney with Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said Bopp's claims are an attempt to divert attention from NOM's failure to follow Maine disclosure rules.

NOM has promised to take this case to the Supreme Court. The organization certainly has the money for the process. The problem is it doesn't want to tell anyone where that money is coming from.

Hat tip to Towleroad.



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4 comments:

Mykelb said...

We already know the homosexual lobby.... They never name the specific persons who are allegedly harmed. These people are complete cowards, liars, and apparently thieves.

Jim Stone said...

They keep losing..every single time!! Yet..NOTHING is done!! Is the Justice Dept. asleep at the wheel? Brian Brown should be behind bars!!!

BlackTsunami said...

I wish Jim. But no wrong doing has been proven. They do have the right to appeal it as far as they can go.

Daniel Wachenheim said...

NOM is so disgusting. They are really the National Organization AGAINST Marriage. Interesting that, after LGBT people have struggled for eons with coming out of the closet, this antigay hate group is going to court to keep themselves in a closet.