A Sacramento County judge on Tuesday
ruled that California Attorney General Kamala Harris can block a
ballot initiative authorizing the murder of gays.
Huntington Beach attorney Matthew
McLaughlin submitted his so-called Sodomite Suppression Act in
February. It sought to authorize the murder of gay men and lesbians
by “bullets to the head” or “any other convenient method.”
Harris, whose office assigns a formal
name and summary to all proposed ballot measures before they advance
to the signature-gathering phase, turned to the court to block
McLaughlin's proposal from advancing.
Advancing the proposal “would be
inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions
among the public and tend to mislead the electorate,” Sacramento
County Superior Court Judge Raymond M. Cadei said in granting Harris'
request.
“This proposed act is the product of
bigotry, seeks to promote violence, is patently unconstitutional and
has no place in a civil society,” Harris said in a statement
Tuesday.