On December 10, the Initiative & Referendum Institute filed its cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, in its lawsuit against the Postal Service regulation that prevents voters from signing a petition on an interior post office sidewalk. The case number hasn’t been assigned yet, but the case is Initiative & Referendum Institute v Postal Service. The regulation permits circulators to stand on interior post office sidewalks and ask passers-by if they wish to sign a petition. But if the individual agrees, then both the circulator and potential signer must then leave that sidewalk and go somewhere else. Even the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, had a concurrence saying the existing policy didn’t make sense. But the D.C. Circuit still upheld the regulation.
UPDATE: here is the cert petition.
“The regulation permits circulators to stand on interior post office sidewalks and ask passers-by if they wish to sign a petition. But if the individual agrees, then both the circulator and potential signer must then leave that sidewalk and go somewhere else.”
Anyone who has ever gathered petition signatures before knows that this regulation is completely impractical and absurd.
I really hope that this ban on gathering petition signatures at Post Offices gets thrown out, because it will open thousands of locations across the country for petition signature gathering. This will ease ballot access.
The current restrictions are blatantly unconstitutional. This ban should have been thrown out years ago.
Petitioning inside the lobby of the post office should be a legal right as well. It is not always practical to be outdoors.
“m In A Y-Trap Says:
December 10th, 2012 at 11:02 am
Petitioning inside the lobby of the post office should be a legal right as well. It is not always practical to be outdoors.”
I totally agree.
That should always be the case with all government buildings that are open to the general public.