WTF????? ~ ~ this Matt McLaughlin should not only be disbarred ... he should be kept in a padded room somewhere ~ Sooz

CA attorney general vows to halt ballot measure that would legalize killing gay people
Updated by German Lopez on March 25, 2015, 4:55 p.m. ET

* 1 California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday announced she will go to court to try to halt a ballot initiative that would legalize the execution of gay and lesbian people in the state.

* 2 Matt McLaughlin, a lawyer in Orange County, filed the ballot initiative last month. The measure still needs more than 365,000 valid petition signatures to make it to the ballot.

* 3 The measure isn't expected to survive, since it's clearly unconstitutional, but it's drawing attention to California's exploitable ballot initiative process.

* 4 Harris's legal challenge may fail, since the attorney general is typically required by law to grant ballot measures a title and summary. But the state's Supreme Court is likely to step in and stop the measure, particularly if the proposal gets enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The measure would authorize the killing of gay and lesbian Californians

Orange County attorney Matt McLaughlin paid the $200 filing fee on February 26 to submit the Sodomite Suppression Act to voters on November 2016.

The proposal has no chance of becoming law, since it's unconstitutional and would most likely never get approval from California voters, but it's drawn national attention because its provisions are so abhorrent and extreme.

As the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee reported, the proposal would require the execution of anyone who touches a person of the same sex for sexual gratification by "bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." It declares that it's "better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God's just wrath." Private citizens would be allowed to step in to act as executioners if the state didn't within a year, meaning that the murder of gay and lesbian people would effectively be legalized.

The measure would also make it illegal, with the threat of a $1 million fine, up to 10 years in prison, and permanent expulsion from the state, to advocate for gay rights to an audience that includes minors. And it would require posting the measure's language prominently in public school classrooms.

The initiative specifies that its constitutionality could only be decided by a California Supreme Court that doesn't include LGBT justices and their supporters, but that portion would only be true if the measure passed.

The proposal very likely won't pass, but it's drawing attention to California's initiative process

In California, ballot initiative sponsors pay a $200 filing fee for their measure, the attorney general gives it a title and summary, supporters collect more than 365,000 signatures, and, if all that's successful, California votes on it.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who's considering a Senate run in 2016, is going to court to try to halt the ballot measure. "As attorney general of California, it is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians," Harris said in a statement. "This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society."

But legal experts told the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee that the attorney general is likely required by law to provide a title and summary for proposed ballot measures once someone pays the $200 filing fee. Harris acknowledged she will have to grant a title and summary if her legal challenge fails.

This setup, legal experts said, prevents elected attorneys general from interfering with citizen-proposed ballot initiatives they disagree with politically. Instead, more politically impartial judges are able to decide the constitutionality of proposed measures.

The California Supreme Court could, and is expected to, step in to block the proposal if it gets too far in the process. The measure violates constitutional due process protections for people who commit private, consensual sexual activity, and it tries to unconstitutionally limit people's free-speech rights with multiple provisions that would try to stop certain forms of LGBT advocacy.

In the meantime, the measure has drawn criticism from advocates who say the filing fee for ballot initiatives, which hasn't been increased since 1943, is too low. "Increasing the fee, even to $500 or $1,000, would help ensure that those who put initiatives into circulation are sincere in their efforts," Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, told the Sacramento Bee.

The newspaper reported a sharp rise in proposed ballot initiatives in recent years: from 47 in the 1960s to nearly 650 in the 2000s.

The measure could get its sponsor disbarred

State legislators are trying to get the California Bar to look into McLaughlin's involvement with the initiative and consider disbarring him.

Lawyers in the state are supposed to demonstrate "good moral character," including respect for the rights of others, California State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens, Los Angeles County) told the San Francisco Chronicle.

This isn't the first time McLaughlin has proposed a ballot initiative. The Chronicle reported that he suggested adding the King James Bible as a literature textbook in California public schools in 2004 because of its "rich use of the English language." His latest proposal, needless to say, ventures into far uglier territory.

Watch: 'How a bill really becomes a law' [video accessible via the end link]

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/22/8270411/california-lgbt-executions

I just canNOT wrap my mind around this level of pure evil/hatred ~ but at least we now know that it is being fueled by his "religion" ~ ~ there are some "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Who Is The Mysterious Lawyer Behind California's 'Kill All Gays' Drive?
By Brendan James Published March 26, 2015, 6:18 AM EDT

Despite the implications of a proposed ballot measure in California mandating the execution of all homosexuals, little is known about the Orange County lawyer behind it.

"The Sodomite Suppression Act" was submitted to the state by attorney Matthew Gregory McLaughlin on Feb. 26 and proposes to legalize the extermination of gay people via “bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.”

What we do know: McLaughlin is an attorney in Huntington Beach, California. The website of the California State Bar says his law license is active. It also says he went to the University of California Irvine for his undergraduate degree and George Mason University for law school.

He's been practicing law since 1998 and has circulated another state initiative back in 2004, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

This week, TPM contacted two watchdog groups that track anti-gay extremists: the Southern Poverty Law and Human Rights Campaign. Neither had information on McLaughlin or his history.

When TPM called McLaughlin's phone number provided by the state bar, the line went directly to a voicemail. A message left for McLaughlin at the number on Wednesday was not immediately returned.

Other than that, it's been difficult to dig up much more on the author of "The Sodomite Suppression Act," which among other things, mandates state and vigilante killing of any known homosexuals and (perhaps superfluously) barring them from holding public office or receiving public benefits.

When the Los Angeles Times attempted to reach him this week, it found that his address listed by the State Bar is a postal box at a Beach Boulevard strip mall.

"[H]is phone goes straight to voicemail and no one came to the door at the downtown Huntington Beach address where he is registered to vote," the Times reported.

The text of "The Sodomite Suppression Act," posted by the office of the state attorney general, provides some flavor of McLaughlin's voice.

"The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha," it begins.

"Seeing that it is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God's just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating-wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method," the proposal continues.

The other initiative McLaughlin has attempted, which failed, was a proposal to make the Bible a required text in public schools.

"Even if you don't believe its teachings, you'll agree that it includes rich usage of the English language," he told the LA Times in a 2004 interview.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Kamala Harris declared that she would seek authority from the state Supreme Court to quash the measure, calling it "patently unconstitutional" and "utterly reprehensible."

Any Californian can submit an initiative for the state ballot for a $200 fee, at which point the attorney general has 30 days to review it and allow circulation to collect signatures.

Assuming Harris goes through with it, as legal experts told the San Francisco Chronicle they expect, McLaughlin would need about 365,880 signatures to put his screed on the 2016 ballot. Aside from being unlikely, the experts told the newspaper, it would almost certainly be challenged by the state Supreme Court.

On March 10, the California Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus filed a complaint with the state bar to investigate McLaughlin, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

The LGBT Caucus argue that McLaughlin has run afoul of the bar's requirement that members demonstrate "good moral character."

"We are shocked and outraged that a member of the State Bar would so callously call for the disenfranchisement, expulsion and murder of members of the LGBT community," the caucus wrote.

"We believe that this measure not only fails constitutional muster, but that such inciting and hateful language has no place in our discourse, let alone state constitution," it added.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/matt-gregory-mclaughlin-kill-all-gays-california

This is just too weird to be true.

it is too weird to NOT be true.

With that same mentality, I would say......"OK, as long as you make it legal to execute conservatives who make stupid and/or false statements" Tit for tat, idiots. You CHOOSE to be stupid and we should be able to execute you for that reason alone.

Maybe it's a abridgement of freedom of religion to be required not to kill people that your religious convictions require you to disapprove of.
Or maybe lethal violence is just another form of speech, like campaign contributions. A way to express your opinion very, very emphatically.
It could happen in Indiana.

Diversions.
The wingnuts will be tossing out all kinds of diversions to detract from Ted Cruz and his ilk. It makes them look almost normal.