Matthew G. McLaughlin, an Orange County, Calif., attorney filed the proposed measure last month, asking voters to criminalize homosexuality in the state and impose a death penalty sentence.
According to McLaughlin’s proposed “Sodomite Suppression Act,” “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.”
On Wednesday, Harris filed an action for declaratory relief seeking judicial authorization to not issue a title and summary for the initiative.
“As Attorney General of California, it is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians. This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society. Today, I am filing an action for declaratory relief with the Court seeking judicial authorization for relief from the duty to prepare and issue the title and summary for the “Sodomite Suppression Act.” If the Court does not grant this relief, my office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.”
Under California law, one a sponsor has paid the required fee, the attorney general must prepare a title and a maximum 100-word summary of the initiative and forward it to the secretary of state for a 90-day period of public signature-gathering.
