MINNESOTA: Court Rules That Anti-Gay Hate Group Can Hide Its Donors

Think Progress reports that a court has ruled that the NOM-funded Minnesota Family Council does not have to reveal the names of its donors. From the ruling:

Minnesota statutes allow the association to allocate the amount of general treasury money used to promote or defeat a ballot question among donors to the association’s general treasury. The association is required to itemize only those donors who, based on the allocation, contributed $1,000 or more of the general treasury money used to promote or defeat a ballot question. The allocation and itemization threshold provisions used together provide a means by which an association may limit or, in some cases, entirely avoid itemized donor disclosure.

Josh Israel writes at Think Progress:

This loophole means that proponents of ballot initiatives can legally launder money through non-profit groups, as long as the non-profit group does other things beyond just fighting for that particular ballot initiative. Because the Minnesota Family Council has taken other right-wing positions over the years — including opposing anti-bullying protections for LGBT students and regulation of pre-school programs — it can raise and spend as much money as it wants to this year to support the amendment and voters will have no opportunity to know who is paying for their advertising and other campaign efforts.