PORTLAND, MAINE — On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a national anti-marriage equality group, in its bid to prevent its donor list from being released under Maine’s campaign disclosure law.
The justices refused the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) request, which was made in an effort to keep secret the names of contributors who helped fund the group’s $1.9 million donation to a political action committee (PAC) during the repeal of the state’s same-sex marriage law.
The state’s campaign disclosure law requires that groups which give more than $5,000 to PACs— or other efforts to influence an election—disclose their donors. Attorneys for Washington, D.C.- based NOM argued that releasing the donor list would curtail free speech and result in harassment for the donors. The group challenged the Maine law, but a lower court refused to overturn it.
In 2009, Maine voters repealed the state’s marriage equality law. That law is once more on the state ballot in the November 6 general election. NOM has donated $250,000 to the campaign opposing marriage equality. The donor list remains closed until a separate case works its way through the state courts.
CLIFF DUNN