California Attorney General Kamala Harris is still on the hook for now to process the state's "
kill the gays" ballot proposal, but she was granted an extension Thursday on next week's deadline to issue a title and summary for the "Sodomite Suppression Act." Once that happens, the proposal's author, Orange County attorney Matt McLaughlin, can start gathering the 366,000 signatures needed to make the ballot.
Lisa Leff has the details:
Harris asked a state court in late March for permission to reject the measure, calling it obviously unconstitutional and "utterly reprehensible." But since a judge has not yet acted on the unusual request, she said in legal papers filed Wednesday that she would be legally bound to clear the initiative's author on Monday to start pursuing the 366,000 signatures needed to put the law before voters in November 2016.
Judge Steven Rodda in Sacramento agreed to give the attorney general until June 25 to prepare an official title and ballot summary for the initiative, which would amend the California penal code to make sex with a person of the same gender an offense punishable by "bullets to the head or by any other convenient method."
Unless the court approves Harris's effort to quash the proposal, she may be be obligated to process this reprehensible piece of hate speech.
On the other hand, it might be interesting to see McLaughlin's signature drive, since he has thus far evaded every effort made by reporters to reach him. One has to wonder how well his murderous tendencies are going to go over with people making their weekly trip to the grocery store, some with kids in tow. Cuz that's not creepy.