A judge has ruled that the nation’s largest anti-gay marriage group must release information of who has donated to its campaign and organization.
National Organization for Marriage, a Princeton University-based group founded in 2007, said they’re reluctant to give out the information because it would have a chilling effect on free speech and violate the First Amendment.
Maine election law requires that any donor giving more the $100 needs to be identified.
Stand for Marriage, Maine’s leading campaigner to ban gay marriage in the state, has received half of it’s funding from the National Organization for Marriage. This Tuesday, Maine voters will go to the ballot box and vote for or against Measure 1, a referedum that would reverse the gay marriage law passed in May.
The National Organization for Marriage ordered a restraining order against Maine’s ethics board after they tried investigating into the group’s finances. Judge D. Brock Hornby denied the request Wednesday.
The ethics board is now demanding the National Organization for Marriage hand over donor information before Tuesday.
To read more about this story, visit The Times for Trenton.
– Simon Husted
