Supreme Court Blows a Big One

This decision will effectively keep people from signing petitions on controversial issues:

The Supreme Court says people who signed a petition to repeal Washington state’s gay rights law do not have the right to keep their names secret from the public.

The high court on Thursday ruled against Protect Marriage Washington, which organized a petition drive for a public vote to repeal the state’s “everything-but-marriage” gay rights law.

Petition signers wanted to hide their names because of worries of intimidation. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to keep their names secret. The Supreme Court stepped in and temporarily blocked release of the names until the high court could make a decision.

The court now says disclosing names on a petition for a public referendum does not violate the First Amendment.

In California gay activists went after people who signed petitions for Proposition 8, in some cases calling for public boycotts of their businesses or demanding their employers fire them. Don't believe me? Click on the Proposition 8 label below and you'll see all the posts related to that issue.

By deciding the case in this manner it ensures that a lot more people will do what I do - refuse to sign any and all petitions. Nobody wants to be harassed because they supported a politically incorrect ballot initiative.

To his credit Justice Clarence Thomas filed the only dissent. As usual, he was correct. Don Surber has more on his dissent.