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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."
Really? I can go down to my county courthouse and get a record of how everyone voted in the last election? I'm pretty sure that's not correct...
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
I agree. We should definitely live in a society mimicking that under which Saddam Hussein ruled. What a utopia that would be where you get intimidated and face death threats for voting contrary to the wishes of those more powerful.
The right that was being taken away, for one, did not cause any wrong. Idiot.
Also you cherrypicked a handful of incidents none of which are categorizable as vioolence; considering the violence queers still face daily in America, getting spray painted or their house egged is the least they deserve if they're too cowardly to stand up for your beliefs in front of the people you're trying to take away the rights from.