Posted on 10/25/2009 6:41:28 PM PDT by iowamark
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge said sponsors of California's ban on same-sex marriage may not delay in handing over campaign strategy documents to gay-rights groups that are looking for evidence of anti-gay bias as they try to overturn the measure.
The sponsors had sought to keep the documents while challenging the order to turn them over in an appeals court.
But in a ruling late Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco said backers of Proposition 8 had failed to show that disclosing internal memos and e-mails would violate their freedom of speech or subject them to harassment.
He said they had refused to identify any documents that needed special protection and noted that he could order their opponents to keep any sensitive material confidential....
Plaintiffs in the suit said documents from the Yes on 8 campaign might help them prove that the ballot measure was motivated by anti-gay bias, which would increase their chances of overturning it.
The measure's sponsors, a conservative religious coalition called Protect Marriage, said voters were entitled to reaffirm the traditional definition of marriage and that the organizers' alleged motives were irrelevant...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hell, no!
Leftists forcing their opponents to turn over their “campaign strategy documents”???
Why not? It’s the same thing they are doing with
the Constitution!
WTF????????????????????????????
Our nation is so SCREWED UP!
The Plaintiffs should have their case tossed. Instead they’re getting to invade because they want too?
This sucks. :(:(:(:(
Deserves to get slapped down hard on appeal — suppose its backers were all hard core homo haters, or they had been visited by UFOs from Mars, so what? It is moot. The law is blind to why something gets to be a proposition on a ballot.
WTF??? What possible justification is there for this judge to rule this way? So now, every time a ballot initiative is passed, the opposition has the right to all the internal documents of the winning position? This is insane.
Anti-gay bias? Every normal person has one. Gay people suck! Oh wait...
The Constitution is unconstitutional I guess.
He sounds like an opinionated maverick. He was appointed by the first president Bush.
The SF Chronicle calls him a “conservative,” but he sounds more like a libertarian, from what this article says:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/01/BAGIL8HGVF1.DTL
Comically, he was working for the Olympic Committee at one time and prevented activists in SF from using the name “Gay Olympics.”
What does the motive for being for or against a particular ballot measure have to do with anything. Whatever happened to the first amendment. Man, this country is getting crazy. We have morons for judges.
And I am a poached egg awaiting a piece of toast. Wanna bet this leaks all over but good?
Any dissent is being declared illegal/hate speech/”bias” and all the power of government is turned against the dissenters.
In the leftist hierarchy of “values”, top place goes to the muzzies, who stone gays to death or execute them with falling brick walls. So it’s kind of amusing to watch the gay-leftist alliance.
I am sure the gay rights people will scrupulously keep everything confidential. They wouldn’t use personal threats or intimidation, would they?
Of course not!
I suggest the pro side should sue for campaign documents from the gays. I’d wager those are full of hate.
Under this legal theory, I suspect Obama hates white people, so to overturn his election and prove racial bias, I would like to force the turnover of all documents and emails from/to his campaign staff.
If you can throw in his long form original birth certificate, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
What a friggin crock.
This is a tactic I would normally deplore, but I hope in this case the Prop 8 backers shred and burn everything, fry all he hard disks with a mag-wiper, and then respectfully tell this judge to take a flying leap at a rolling donut.
The Prop 8 opponents have proven that they are capable of extremely hateful vindictiveness. Lives could literally be lost if that information gets into their hands.
A: That’s nuts.
B: I doubt it’s legal. (I don’t see how the group could be compelled into discovery. Are they even Defendants in the case? If so, why? That’s getting dangerously close to going after people because of what they support and how they vote. Very chilling indeed!)
jw
Unreal! The people of California voted this down, and they other side can’t leave it alone. Turning over documents doesn’t change the vote one iota!
This is just a preview of what we’ll see if this “Thought Crimes” Bill is implemented. Leftists around the country will demand documentation from their opponents and they will pour over these documents and seize upon anything that they can twist into a hate crime. “Hate Crimes” legislation is a covert attempt to ban any opposition to left wing ideology and policies.
If they don’t find anything, the Judge will order PET brain scans of the backers, to see if they harbor anti-gay bias internally.
Congressman Billybob
At least that's what I would do. I don't know what organizations keep this stuff anyway. I destroy all my business documents on a regular basis for just this reason...
I am growing convinced that our country has gone past the point of retrievability. I do believe America is dying.
Lie about it.
Enough of these idiot judges.
No he doesn't. Libertarians start with the belief that words mean what they mean, and the Constitution is to be interpreted according to the words written in the document and what they mean.
Marriage being a timeless social/legal institution for the organization of our society, no true libertarian is going to advocate that marriage means same sex marriage. Anarchists, maybe, but not true libertarians.
All of the above actively plot the destruction of western society.
In it's place, they plan to first invoke absolute, 100% chaos, and they ignorantly believe they can then remake mankind into some kind of force capable of overlooking/overcoming the rather basic concept of good vs evil.
I find it very shocking that the vast majority of normal people are so easily swayed to ignore the absolute evil intent of the very small minority of those who are intent on committing egregious, antisocial crimes.
Abomination
No, Revolution! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
This is just insane.
Mark my words, the media will seize on the fact that he is a "Republican Appointee" and will present that as clear evidence that his decision was reasoned and well thought out.
This homosexualist judge is going to overturn the majority of the people of California.
“To give a minority a negative upon the majority (which is always the case where more than a majority is requisite to a decision) is, in its tendency, to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser number. . . . If a pertinacious minority can control the opinion of a majority, respecting the best mode of conducting it, the majority in order that something may be done must conform to the view of the minority . . . .” Alexander Hamilton
We are living in a dictatorship.
I agree with you. The talk is that this judge is a homosexual himself. He shouldn’t even be hearing this case. In any case, under no circumstances should the backers of Prop 8 turn over those documents.
Outrageous.
This is no longer a “Proposition.” It’s the constitution of the State of California.
If they’re declaring the constitution unconstitutional, they have utterly abandoned the rule of law and our form of self-government.
I once lived there and recall a pro-English proposition (can't remember the number) back in the 1990's that was passed by the popular vote there by a pretty large margin.
Well lo and behold some pro-illegal alien groups filed suit the next day and some liberal judge overturned the will of the people.
Notice the pattern? The will of the people is sacrosanct only when leftists (i.e. Hussein Obama) and leftist causes win elections. Otherwise commie lawyers and their cronies go into overdrive to overturn the will of the people on some technicality (or "hate"). Their "cause" is always just, and when the tables are turned, those on the right that challenge election results are branded as "wingnuts."
This is not what the Founding Fathers intended. Lord help us all...
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