California AG Need Not Process Unconstitutional Anti-Gay Ballot Proposal

In Harris v. McLaughlin, (CA Super. Ct., June 22, 2015), a California trial court judge entered a default judgment allowing California's attorney general to ignore the statutory requirement to prepare a circulating title and summary for a proposed anti-gay ballot measure that had been filed.  These steps are required before the proponent can attempt to obtain the required number of signatures. The measure, the so-called Sodomite Suppression Act, would have barred "sodomistic propaganda" and called for the killing of anyone who "willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification" (see prior posting). The court held that the proposal "is patently unconstitutional on its face" and that any action by the attorney general moving ahead with the proposal "would be inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public, and tend to mislead the electorate." Huntington Beach Independent reports on the decision.