Attorney general moves to dismiss kill-gays ballot measure
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California's attorney general is asking a judge to toss out a proposed ballot initiative that advocates killing anyone who engages in gay sex.
Attorney General Kamala Harris on Tuesday asked Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Raymond Cadei to enter a default judgment against Matthew McLaughlin, the Orange County lawyer who paid $200 to submit the initiative.
McLaughlin has not attempted to defend his so-called Sodomite Suppression Act in court. He did not respond to a telephone message Wednesday.
Another Sacramento County judge previously gave Harris 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."
Issuing the title and summary would let McLaughlin start gathering the 366,000 signatures needed to put the law before voters in November 2016.
Harris wants Cadei to relieve her of that duty.
Deputy Attorney General Anthony Hakl said in court documents that the initiative is clearly unconstitutional and that forcing Harris to move forward would be "inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public and tend to mislead the electorate."
The attorney general wants Cadei to rule before the current June 25 deadline for moving ahead on the ballot measure.
Even conservative groups in California have repudiated the proposed ballot measure. The proposal has generated several legislative proposals to make it more difficult to qualify initiatives. However, others contend it falls under the right to free speech.
The measure prompted several counter measures, including the "Intolerant Jackass Act" and the "Shellfish Suppression Act."
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.