State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Pérez have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation into a tiny Missouri nonprofit organization that has pumped nearly $500,000 into a voter initiative to suspend the state's landmark climate change law.
In a letter to Holder on Tuesday, Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Pérez, D-Los Angeles, asked the Justice Department to determine whether the Adam Smith Foundation is illegally funneling campaign contributions from third parties to support the rollback measure, Proposition 23....
Our good friends at Fired Up have even more detail.
Our question in April:
Where did that $498,000 that the Adam Smith Foundation contributed come from? Just asking.
There's got to be a really interesting answer somewhere.
Adam Smith's invisible hand has found its way into California politics.
Last week, a nonprofit group called the Adam Smith Foundation, based in Jefferson City, Missouri, gave $498,000 to the campaign to repeal California's greenhouse gas law. That's quite a contribution, considering the group's entire revenues for the last two years were just $30,000 per year.
What's more curious is how the donation fits in with the group's stated mission. According to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the Adam Smith Foundation describes itself as "an advocacy organization committed to promoting conservative principles and individual liberties in Missouri. The Adam Smith Foundation was created to defend judicial reform, government accountability, education reform, tax and spending reform and protecting private property."
So how did the fight to repeal AB 32 get on the foundation's radar? And who gave money to the foundation to give to the campaign in California? Unfortunately, federal records don't show us that. The phone number on their federal forms has been disconnected, and an e-mail sent through the group's Web site Monday was not returned....
The Adam Smith Foundation filed its annual report with the Missouri Secretary of State on July 17, 2009. Its officers and board:
Pres: John Elliott, Smithville, MO
Asst Sec'y: Thomas J. Shupe, Jr., St. Louis, MO
Board of Directors:
Kurt Killen, Platte Woods, MO
William Clark Hardin, IV, St. Charles, MO
John Elliott, Smithville, MO
The Adam Smith Foundation's registered agent is Registered Agent, Ltd. at the address of Lathrop & Gage in Kansas City, Missouri.
...For the third time in recent years, this court is called upon to address a question under California law relating to marriage and same-sex couples...
...Accordingly, we conclude that each of the state constitutional challenges to Proposition 8 advanced by petitioners and the Attorney General lacks merit. Having been approved by a majority of the voters at the November 4, 2008 election, the initiative measure lawfully amends the California Constitution to include the new provision as article I, section 7.5...
...Finally, we consider whether Proposition 8 affects the validity of the marriages of same-sex couples that were performed prior to the adoption of Proposition 8. Applying well-established legal principles pertinent to the question whether a constitutional provision should be interpreted to apply prospectively or retroactively, we conclude that the new section cannot properly be interpreted to apply retroactively. Accordingly, the marriages of same-sex couples performed prior to the effective date of Proposition 8 remain valid and must continue to be recognized in this state...
At 12:30 p.m. today in Kansas City there was a rally at the J.C. Nichols fountain at 47th Street and Main near the entrance of the Plaza in opposition to the passage of California's Proposition 8 in the recent general election (removing the right of marriage for many in the California Constitution). Approximately four hundred people attended the rally. The local NBC affiliate reported that two hundred people were in attendance. There were also a few people who were in opposition to those at the rally.
There were a few opposing pickets across the street from the rally site before it started.
I spoke with Timothy Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church:
