The organizations behind Prop 8, the successful ballot initiative banning gay marriage in California, have filed suit in federal court to challenge campaign finance laws that require disclosure of contributors and the amount of their contributions. The groups contend that their coerced identification (“outing”) infringes their First Amendment rights.
You can read the text of the lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Sacramento, on this page of Justin McLachlan’s blog.
You have to scroll down the page to find it.
The claim is not as loopy as it may sound. It finds support in doctrines protecting anonymous speech and association with controversial organizations. Nonetheless, the First Amendment arguments are likely to fail because they are effectively froreclosed by the US Supreme Court’s many decisions affirming government’s power to regulate campaign contributions through, among other means, disclosure of campaign contributions and their sources. -PS