Story Archive

Voter-Driven

Matt McLaughlin, an attorney in Huntington Beach, Calif., has made use of the state’s initiative process to propose a new measure for the ballot. Anyone can pay $200, a fee set in 1943, for anything to be officially accepted, and McLaughlin’s “Sodomite Suppression Act” declares 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 Gomorrah.” And how should citizens “suppress” that? According to McLaughlin’s initiative, “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification [is to] be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.” But isn’t murder illegal? McLaughlin covers that with: “This law is effective immediately and shall not be rendered ineffective nor invalidated by any court, state or federal, until heard by a quorum of the Supreme Court of California consisting only of judges who are neither sodomites nor subject to disqualification hereunder.” No Constitutional free speech, either: “No person shall distribute, perform, or transmit sodomistic propaganda directly or indirectly by any means to any person under the age of majority” or they “shall be fined $1 million per occurrence, and/or imprisoned up to 10 years, and/or expelled from the boundaries of the state of California for up to life.” The state cannot reject a voter initiative simply because it’s blatantly illegal: the next step is for the Attorney General to prepare a ballot title and summary of the measure so McLaughlin can then gather 365,880 signatures to get it on the ballot. Meanwhile there are thousands of signatures on another proposal: to the state bar, demanding they yank McLaughlin’s law license. (RC/Sacramento Bee) ...At which time he’ll just move to Indiana and start over.