Exclusive: Kamala Harris tells the Guardian the Sodomite Suppression Act ‘has no place in a civil society’, but experts caution it is unclear how court would rule

California’s attorney general will go to court to stop a controversial proposed ballot initiative that calls for the legalized execution of gay people, the Guardian has learned.

California lawyer seeks to put 'shoot the gays' proposal on 2016 ballot Read more

Kamala Harris, who recently announced her bid to succeed Barbara Boxer as US senator, had earlier appeared powerless to stop the Sodomite Suppression Act, a ballot initiative filed last week by Huntington Beach lawyer Matt McLaughlin. As attorney general, she was faced with the task of writing the title and summary for the act, but did not have the authority to block it.



But on Wednesday, she said she would be asking a judge to step in.

“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,” she said in a written statement given exclusively to the Guardian.



The measure calls for the execution of California residents on the basis of their sexuality. McLaughlin would need to collect 365,880 signatures to get the proposal on the November 2016 ballot – an expensive long shot that could cost upwards of $1m.



But the mere filing of the idea has caused consternation among activists, legislators and the LGBT community and its supporters, many of whom would like to see immediate action to remove it from the public process.



“This initiative is ridiculous and if it were to appear on the ballot, California voters would undoubtedly reject it. However, LGBT people continue to be the targets of violence, here and around the world, and we have a responsibility to fight calls for more violence directed against them, whatever their form,” said assembly member Susan Eggman, a member of the LGBT Legislative Caucus.



But despite the violent and unconstitutional nature of the proposal – including a clause that says “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” – California’s direct democracy process of initiatives means that the attorney general does not have the administrative authority to kill the proposal on her own. She does, however, have the right to ask a judge to do it.

Kamala Harris: the 'female Obama' plots her course on the road to Washington Read more

“A judge could terminate the whole thing right now,” says Vikram Amar, a professor of law at the University of California, Davis and an expert on constitutional issues.

Loyola law school professor and election law expert Jessica Levinson agreed with that opinion, adding that Harris would likely ask the judge to “kick it off because it is clearly unconstitutional”. Levinson added that it is unclear how the court would rule, however. California judges have traditionally been loath to interfere with the initiative process, preferring to wait until an issue becomes law.

But she adds: “If there is ever a case where a judge would throw something out, this is it.”