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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California judge on June 22 struck down a proposed ballot measure that would have made same-sex sexual activity punishable by death.

Superior Court Judge Raymond M. Cadei in a one-page ruling said the so-called Sodomite Suppression Act that Matthew McLaughlin, an Orange County attorney proposed in February, is “patently unconstitutional on its face.” Cadei also ruled that Attorney General Kamala Harris does not have to circulate petitions in order to place it on the ballot.

“Any preparation and official issuance of a circulating title and summary for the fact by the attorney general would be inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public and tend to mislead the electorate,” wrote Cadei. “The attorney general is relieved of any obligation to issue a title and summary for the act.”

Harris in March requested a court order that would allow her to refuse to act on the proposed ballot measure.

“This proposal not only threatens the public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible and has no place in civil society,” Harris said.