The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Doe v Reed on April 28, 2010. This is the case from Washington state on whether signatures on petitions are private, or whether the state should be free to release the names and addresses to a group that wants to post the information on a web page.

The brief of the pro-privacy side is due on February 25. The state government’s brief is due on March 25. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Doe v Reed is the first U.S. Supreme Court ballot access case since 2008. The last ballot access case involved petitions to get on New York state major party primary ballots for the office of Delegate to party judicial nominating conventions. It was New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, and the court ruled that because the major parties want ballot access for their own primaries to be difficult for that office, that is their right.