SCOTUS Rules Petiton Signatures Are Public Record

Reader SheeEttin reminds us that back in October, the Supreme Court accepted a case testing whether or not petition signers' names could be kept anonymous. (The premise was that the act of signing a petition is covered by free speech, and thus signers are entitled to anonymity, especially to protect them from harassment.) Now the Court has issued its ruling: signatures are part of the public record. "By a strong majority Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a setback for opponents of gay marriage who wanted to keep their identities secret. The justices favored transparency over privacy in a case testing whether signing a petition is a public act. The case began with a bill that the Washington state legislature passed in 2009, expanding the state's domestic partnership law. The new referendum was known as 'everything but marriage' for the enhanced rights it gave same-sex couples. People who opposed the bill gathered 120,000 signatures for a ballot measure asking voters to repeal it. That measure eventually reached Washington voters, who upheld 'everything but marriage.' Those who signed the repeal petition feared that they would be harassed if their names became public, so they went to court challenging Washington's Public Records Act. They argued that signing a petition is speech that is protected from disclosure. But in Thursday's 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court disagreed. 'Such disclosure does not, as a general matter, violate the first amendment,' Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court."

Comments

Re:While I agree that anonymity is a good thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

"own up to your opinions/decisions"??? how very un-American of you!

This is why I like the 2nd amendment

[Vinegar Joe]

It balances things out.

Re:Not really that big of set back

[dkleinsc]

I mean, if you don't feel strongly enough to write your name publicly, why not just write Mickey Mouse? And hell, if there is going to be no public scrutiny of who is brave enough to actually back the petition, what's to keep the petitioner from just writing Mickey Mouse 120,000 times?

Walt Disney's legal department?

Irony

[Aesculapius]

It's a magical time when those who would speak out against same sex marriage have feel the need to hide from the public.

Irony can be fun!

Re:While I agree that anonymity is a good thing...

[ElectricTurtle]

My nickname is personally identifiable to anybody willing to do a few minutes of work and has a few brain cells to rub together. I'm not hiding, but I'm not doing anybody's work for them. In fact, the SSID of my wireless at home is the address of my Slashdot profile page. (And at some point when I get back into volunteering time and points for Wigle, my Slashdot identity will be attached to the physical location of my house at least in one publicly accessible place.)