The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on
Tuesday refused to block a ruling ordering the National Organization
for Marriage (NOM) to file a public report identifying the sources of
the $2 million it gave to the 2009 people's veto campaign that
repealed a gay marriage law approved by lawmakers.
Three years after NOM and its
supporters repealed the law, voters reversed course, making Maine the
first state in the nation to legalize such unions at the ballot box.
Last year, the Maine Commission on
Governmental Ethics and Election Practices unanimously imposed a
record $50,250 fine against NOM for violating Maine's donor
disclosure laws.
“The time has come for them to
finally comply with state law like everyone else,” Attorney General
Janet Mills told the Portland
Press Herald. “The people of Maine have a right to know
who is paying to influence our elections.”
NOM contributed more than $2 million to
the $3 million campaign to uproot the marriage law. The referendum
campaign was led by Stand for Marriage Maine, a Maine-based ballot
question committee. NOM has argued that it donated money to the
committee from a general fund.
However, NOM President Brian Brown was
an operating officer at Stand for Marriage Maine, which critics argue
allowed NOM to skirt Maine's laws.