By expressing incredible levels of moral outrage, Californian lawmakers, including State Attorney General Kamala Harris, have given the ‘Sodomite Suppression Act’ proposed by Huntington Beach attorney Matt McLaughlin more advertising and coverage than it deserves or would ever have gotten if the obviously unconstitutional and morally vile proposal had been ignored by everyone with a modicum of intelligence.
Since that hasn’t been the case, however, it appears that the state courts will either have to step in or that the initiative will run its course. With much more exposure than it normally would have gotten. It would take 365,880 signatures on the initiative to get it put on the ballot for the people of California to vote on. If McLaughlin were to somehow find that many people to sign the proposal and the majority of California voters cast a ballot for the initiative and then it managed to avoid being declared unconstitutional in the courts then, and only then, should this be considered something other than pathetic trolling.
“It is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians,” Harris said to the New York Times. “This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible and has no place in a civil society.”
Since California law, the home of no win no fee compensation service, doesn’t give the attorney general the power to decide whether a proposal can be blocked, that power is left up to the courts, Harris has no choice but to allow the proposal process to continue. LGBT groups in the state have called upon her to block the initiative but Harris was unable to comply.
“If the court does not grant this relief,” she said, “my office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.”
This has given the proposal, as ridiculous as it sounds, a degree of respectability that it would not have enjoyed. As Mariel Garza of the LA Times put it, “Harris bestowed a level of gravity on a nutty proposal that would have otherwise probably died a quiet, ignoble death in some dark corner.”
Overreaction has not stopped with Harris, however. Assemblymen Evan Low and Richard Bloom have filed legislation to raise the filing fee for proposals from $200 to $8,000. Although the fee has not been increased since 1943, raising it to discourage participation in state politics would be an overreaction.
The Sodomite Suppression Act seeks to criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty. Fortunately, the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in California in 2014. The rights of LGBT persons have been upheld by court decisions across the country and, even if this proposition gets on the ballot, there is no chance that it will go anywhere.
The online petition at change.org seeking to have McLaughlin disbarred for sponsoring this proposition will probably get more signatures than the Sodomite Suppression Act does. It currently has over 17,000 signatures and doesn’t have a 180 day time limit.