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Gubernatorial candidate to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity

Scott Lively, who got 19,000 votes in last month's race for governor, last week lost a bid to have a lawsuit charging him with crimes against humanity dismissed.

In 2012, an American group called the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing a Ugandan group called Sexual Minorities Uganda, sued Lively in US District Court in Boston over his role in promoting a Ugandan law that makes life imprisonment the penalty for being gay. Lively denies having anything to do with the drafting of the law and says he was opposed to life imprisonment for gays.

As first reported by Michael-in-Norfolk, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, also in Boston, rejected Lively's bid to have the case dismissed on First Amendment grounds. The court's ruling:

This petition for a writ of mandamus raises a number of potentially difficult issues with respect to the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, and the First Amendment in cross-border application. Although it is debatable whether the district court has properly parsed the petitioner's protected speech from any unprotected speech or conduct, his right to extraordinary relief is not clear and indisputable. ... Further development of the facts will aid in the ultimate disposition of this case. The petition is denied.

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PDF icon Complaint against Lively313.96 KB
PDF icon Lively's answer112.73 KB
PDF icon Appeals court rejection38.73 KB


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Comments

finest in conservative/republican values.

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Not really. More of a modern Oliver Cromwell, with apologies to Cromwell.

He's a big government, anti-individualist, neo-puritan theocratic fundamentalist.

Replace the commandments of God with the commandments of Marx and you have the same heavy handed statism.

Same boot different ideological justification.

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equivalence.

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Not at all. Same fanaticism and treatment of homosexuals. The German policy was the same as the Soviets. Replace God with personality cult State. Same buffoonery under a different name.

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the current conservative movement with some historical equivalance of Natzis or Stalinists is in no way reflective of the modern progressive movement. Progressives aren't calling for the murder of anyone.

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You clearly haven't been to U.C. Berkley, read Democratic Underground, or the DailyKos comments lately.

The fringe left and Bircher right take teh crazy pants to a new level.

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How many of those so called lefties ran for governor? He is Ted Cruz light, unelectable in Massachusetts but certainly a viable candidate in Dixie.

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Name one person on the left who has been sued for crimes against humanity.

The both sides do it argument is threadbare. Lively ran as an independent but last time he ran as a Republican.

I don't think Lively is comparable in anyway to any of the 7 folks who ran as Democrats and went to the convention,

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What candidates on the left hold views you consider to be comparable to Scott Lively's?

You realize it's ridiculous to compare things people say in places and on blogs (such as U.C. Berkley, Democratic Underground, or DailyKos) to candidates for office. But since you brought it up, show us some of the things these people say that you find to be equally objectionable as Scott Lively's politics.

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Natzis... they are the worst!

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I hate Illinois Nazis - "Joliet" Jake Blues

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My aunt danced on his temporary grave in Westminster. I tried to spit on it but was afraid I was going to hit one of the 5 million people inside the church thinking Princess Di was buried there.

That theocratic scum killed or caused the death of hundreds of thousands and sent many, many Irish people into exile or off to the Caribbean for slavery. (Yes! White People too were sent there in bondage. Look it up.)

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He's about as Republican as Devalue Patrick. This guy is so far right he's off the grid.

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Aug 12, 2010

...the Massachusetts Republican Party establishment has selected Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei as candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor. Baker and Tisei are arguably among the most radical anti-family Republican party-endorsed Governor or Lt. Governor candidates ever in Massachusetts

Scott Lively: Write-in for Governor

Scott Lively lives in Springfield and is known as a major pro-family figure not only in the U.S. but internationally. He is an attorney, pastor (with a PhD in theology), pro-family activist, and author of several books. He also spent time as an international consultant on family issues with more than twenty years of ministry opposing the "gay" political agenda around the world...

Principled and fearless

Like Glenn Beck, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, the Tea Party Movement, MassResistance, and many more, Scott Lively has been demonized by the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/govt10/election...

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Apparently, all Nazis are gay because we are the only ones soulless enough to do such evil things. oooo the cray is strong with him it is.

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"Lively denies having anything to do with the drafting of the law and says he was opposed to life imprisonment for gays."

Ahem.
"In Uganda, which he first visited in 2002, he has cultivated ties to influential politicians and religious leaders at the forefront of the nation's anti-gay crusade. Just before the first draft of Uganda's anti-gay bill began circulating in April 2009, Lively traveled to Kampala and gave lengthy presentations to members of Uganda's parliament and cabinet, which laid out the argument that the nation's president and lawmakers would later use to justify Uganda's draconian anti-gay crackdown—namely that Western agitators were trying to unravel Uganda's social fabric by spreading "the disease" of homosexuality to children. "They're looking for other people to be able to prey upon," Lively said, according to video footage. "When they see a child that's from a broken home it's like they have a flashing neon sign over their head.""
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/scott-lively-anti-gay-law-ug...

"What can be done to protect Russia from the "gay" movement?...criminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality. My philosophy is to leave homosexuals alone if they keep their lifestyle private, and not to force them into therapy if they don't want it. However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage "gay pride" parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality."
from Scott Lively's "Letter to the Russian People", full text at http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/archives.php?id=5225300

It is an absolute disgrace that 19.000 people voted for this lunatic.

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He assaulted a woman, and she sued him and won. He claimed that paying the original judgement was enough, but a court says that he owes her interest on it for the years that he didn't pay it.

Last I checked, he still owes that money - part of why he doesn't go back west.

http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A121481.htm

Also, if he's all about defending families, why doesn't he have one himself? Or, moreover, why doesn't he work for proper treatment of the sort of mental illness that landed his father in a mental institution and messed up his natal family? This is all the most vile form of misdirection.

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Lively settled with the plaintiff, but his co-defendants did not. His settlement agreement was for the primary damages amount, but let _him_ off the hook for the interest. HIs co-defendants didn't want to pay the interest, and claimed the settlement between the plaintiff and Lively eliminated any obligation for them to pay interest. In this decision, the court told the co-defendants that they were wrong, and that they would have to pay the interest after all.

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Thanks for your reading of the case.

What do you think of Swrrly's insight into Lively's purpose in life juxtaposed with the personal experiences that may have shaped him? This, I think, is the most intriguing part of the story.

I'd like to ask this too, for everyone: Do you want to see the plaintiffs win? Why? Why not?

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Also, if he's all about defending families, why doesn't he have one himself?

Because he's deeply damaged goods and no one would have him?

JUST A GUESS.

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That he is a self-hating, closeted homosexual who lashes out and makes this his one personal crusade to rid himself of the "impure" thoughts.

At least, that's pretty much all I can imagine, based on past history (Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, etc).

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Lively sounds like a horror of a human being. I guess I don't understand how hateful and bigoted people sleep at night. Frightening that he ran for public office in this state and that he got nearly 20,000 votes. I just wonder if the majority of those people knew who they were really voting for.

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He thinks gay men turn kids into gays by raping them and he has said that happened to his siblings. I don't think he distinguishes between gay consenting adults and pedophiles. As such, it's easier to see how he thinks his is the moral position.

At the same time, he worked to criminalize gay in Uganda, Russia and elsewhere at a great cost to gay people living in those countries. Think of him as the anti-gay Joe McCarthy rooting out gays from society.

I thought he was married. Am I mistaken?

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19,000 votes? I'm kind of shocked that many people would eat up the bullshit he's serving. Or "eat da poo poo", if you will.

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THIS is why it's OK for the mainstream media to exclude fringe candidates from debates. Giving this guy any platform to spread his hate is not OK.

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if he had been allowed to participate in the debates and started spouting his nonsense, do you think he would have gotten 19,000 votes in the election?

And if the MSM had paid more attention to 'fringe' candidates like him, perhaps this information might have come out BEFORE the election, which might have possibly caused him to withdraw his candidacy.

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He did participate in at least one debate. I don't know if he was in more than one, but he was in at least one. IIRC his participation was a bit of a laugher, but still.

And the information WAS out there. This is not the first time that Lively ran for governor. I saw Lively flyers in 2010, noted the "family values" dog-whistle code words, and in 30 seconds of googling, knew what this guy was about. The charges of crimes against humanity? Also not news. He hasn't been above the fold on the Globe or the Herald, but if that's the standard of information being out there, well...

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