On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court released an opinion in Doe v Reed, holding that disclosure of the names and addresses of petition signers does not violate the U.S. Constitution. The decision is by Chief Justice John Roberts. The vote was 8-1, with a dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas. The opinion says that if a group that submits a petition can show that the signers are likely to be harassed, then it can bring an as-applied challenge. Here is the opinion.
The Court’s opinion is only 13 pages long. The Thomas dissent is 19 pages long. Justice Alito wrote separately to say the as-applied exception for groups claiming the likelihood of harassment should be granted early in the process. Justice Sotomayor wrote separately to say that the as-applied exception should not be granted easily, and her concurrence was co-signed by Justices Ginsburg and Stevens. Justice Scalia would not sign the Court’s opinion, and wrote separately to say that the U.S. Constitution does not protect secret voting, nor anonymous political speech.
The names and addresses of people who signed the particular referendum petition in this lawsuit will still not be released, until after the case has returned to U.S. District Court to hear the as-applied challenge. The particular referendum in Washington state concerned the civil unions law which the legislature passed in 2008. A referendum petition was filed against that law, and the voters then voted on the civil unions law in November 2008. Voters voted to keep the civil unions law.