On October 18, proponents of privacy for people who have signed petitions appealed Doe v Reed to the Ninth Circuit, even though the state of Washington has already released the names and addresses of people who signed the 2009 referendum petition that caused this lawsuit to be filed. The U.S. District Court yesterday had said there is not enough evidence of harassment to keep the names from being released to the public.

On appeal, the proponents of privacy for petition signers will probably argue that the U.S. District Court erred, because the U.S. District Court said there was little evidence that the signers had been harassed. The problem with this argument is that, until yesterday, the names and addresses had not been released to the public. UPDATE: here is a Los Angeles Times story about the aftermath of the state’s releasing the names and addresses.