On July 28, proponents of a Referendum in Washington state asked a U.S. District Court to protect the privacy of the people who signed their petition. The case is Protect Marriage Washington v Reed, 3:09-cv-0546. The case was assigned to Judge Benjamin Settle, a Bush Jr. appointee. On July 29, Judge Settle issued a Temporary Restraining Order, preventing the names from being made public until the case is decided. See this story.
There has been few precedents on whether the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be considered a public record. Some states provide by law that the records are not public, but most states do not. The petition in this case is to prevent a new law from going into effect, to provide for civil unions for same-sex couples. No one knows yet if the petition has enough valid signatures. Proponents submitted 138,500 signatures. They need 120,577 valid signatures, so it seems somewhat likely the petition will fall short.
Glad it went to a federal court. I think we need federal protections of our inherent right to dissent. Our Constitution protects our right to petition. Being anonymus has always been protected. Sure it should be public record for any discrepencies or challenges. However the names should not be able to be lifted for various reason. In fact if Obama doesn’t need to show his original birth certificate why should those signatures be allowed to be made public.
First, I can see that you are not very intelligent by how poorly you spell. It’s anonymous and discrepancies.
Second, original birth certificates are not public for reasons of security – to keep people from using them to obtain false documents. Obama’s US birth certificate has been certified as valid and no matter what idiots like you think, it’s a non-issue. If it wasn’t valid Bush and his cronies would have found a way to stop his presidency. Oh, I’ll bet you never even thought of that did you?
Third, I think we should publish the identities of idiots like yourself so we can help prevent you from pro-creating and lowering the IQ of the nation.
Oh come on – Bush and Hussein Obama are kissing cousins, and they have the same political agenda – Globalization. Neither one of them is a conservative. Where have you been since the information age started Little Johnson?
How many Stalin / Hitler purge lists have been / are being created ???
Would King George III loved to have known who was signing any petition in favor of the Declaration of Independence ???
Would Jefferson Davis (and the rest of the slave oligarchy) loved to have known who signing any petition to abolish slavery in a Confederate State in 1861 ???
This is the New Age of U.S.A. STATISM – leftwing and rightwing — with massive databases spying on everybody 24/7.
why does a “party” member have the right to a secret primary election but a non-enrolled not invited to a secret party primary does not have a right to a secret independent nominating petition (at least in NYS)??
It is funny how all these guys who don’t want KING HUSSEIN to produce his original birth certificate want nobody to question the KING. Back when Bush was President “dissent was patriotic”, now quit asking questions. You liberals act like our government has never lied to you. I hear a few state laws will be passed to require the original birth certificate to be submitted for the 2012 election. What will the liberals say then? It is about him being accountable to the people.