From HRC Backstory:
NOM Files Yet Another Lawsuit Challenging Disclosure Laws
By Michael Cole
As part of its radical nationwide efforts to dismantle state laws that provide transparency about who is funding political campaigns, the National Organization for Marriage this week filed suit in Rhode Island seeking to have their disclosure laws ruled unconstitutional. The suit comes the same week as NOM lost in federal court in Minnesota on a similar case.
The case – National Organization for Marriage v. John Daluz – was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on September 21. Daluz is the named defendant in his official capacity as Vice Chairman of the state board of elections.
This new lawsuit brought by NOM’s lawyers is similar to other public disclosure challenges they have made across the country including in Minnesota and New York. In Maine NOM remains under investigation by the Maine Ethics Commission for failing to register with the state as a ballot question committee and disclose the donors to its campaign to overturn Maine’s marriage equality law in 2009. In Washington State, NOM’s lawyers fought the state’s public records law all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court – and lost. A federal court in California has similarly rejected NOM’s efforts to hide its donors in the wake of Proposition 8.
Human Rights Campaign Vice President of Communications and Marketing Fred Sainz remarked in a release: “One thing’s for sure – NOM feels like they have something to hide. In yet another state, NOM is trying to eviscerate the fair and open process that governs election spending in this country. What lengths won’t they go to in order to shield themselves from public scrutiny?”