Sometimes good things do happen. Both the National Organization for Marriage and the Mormons lost today. Both losses were related to spending on marriage equality referenda.

First, Gerald at DirigoBlue on NOM:

This morning, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) lost its appeal of a 1st District Court ruling requiring it to turn over information on its donors to the Maine Ethics Commission. NOM was order to turn over the names by Magistrate Judge John Rich in May. NOM is the Mormon front group that donated $1.9 million in a successful effort last year to overturn Maine’s law that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry. The Appeals Court found that the documents requested by the Ethics Commission do not violate 1st Amendment guarantees, nor does that request impose a “significant risk of chill.” Further, the Court found: Moreover, Appellees [NOM] have a compelling interest in defending Maine’s election laws against charges of unconstitutionality…In this case, that interest extends to review of the documents in question. In framing some of their underlying constitutional challenges to Maine’s election laws, Appellant-Petitioners have made relevant the issue of whether NOM has as one its primary purposes the influencing of ballot questions and/or candidate elections. We conclude that the materials in question have the potential to be highly relevant to that issue, and we see no less restrictive means for Appellees to probe the issue than by reviewing the materials under the auspices of the strict protective order to which Appellees have consented. MPBN reports that NOM will appeal this ruling to the SCOTUS.

And, from the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert on the Mormons: