Oct 26, 2009 by Bruce
Supreme Court gets involved in petition signers “political speech” case
As you’ll recall from an earlier post, the dispute is over the release of the names of 138,000 petition signers in Washington state who wanted to see Ref 71 (repeal of a domestic partnership law) on a state ballot in November. Gay activists want the names released so they can be published on websites, similar to what was done in California and other states with regard to marriage and domestic partnership issues.
Although gay activists say they just want to encourage polite discussion between petition signers and their “friends,” we know, as the LA Times has reported, the results of such publication can be devastating:
Christoffersen was a manager at El Coyote, the Beverly Boulevard landmark restaurant that’s always had throngs of customers waiting to get inside. Many of them were gay, and Christoffersen, a devout Mormon, donated $100 in support of Proposition 8, the successful November ballot initiative that banned gay marriage.
She never advertised her politics or religion in the restaurant, but last month her donation showed up on lists of “for” and “against” donors. And El Coyote became a target.
A boycott was organized on the Internet, with activists trashing El Coyote on restaurant review sites. Then came throngs of protesters, some of them shouting “shame on you” at customers. The police arrived in riot gear one night to quell the angry mob.
The district court judge agreed with petition signers’ arguments that signing one’s name to a petition is classic anonymous political speech (which is strongly protected by the First Amendment) that would be “chilled” if signers expected to be subjected to reprisals like the one described above. The 9th Circuit, however, reversed the district court and ordered the release of the names, only to be temporarily stopped by a Supreme Court order found here. That will be the status quo until we hear whether the Supreme Court decides to hear the full case on appeal or not.
