Do Petition Signers Have a Constitutional Right to Anonymity?

Last month, in Doe #1 v. Reed,the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a claim that over one hundred thousand people who signed a Washington state petition have a constitutional right to prevent the public from learning their names and addresses. The plaintiffs, who have already prevailed on one aspect of their case in the Supreme Court, have now filed a new petition seeking review by the Justices. In this column, I consider the surprisingly difficult question of whether there is a constitutional right to sign a petition anonymously. Earlier this year, the state of Washington enacted SB 5688, commonly known as the "everything but marriage act," a law that extends to same-sex (and opposite-sex) domestic partners just about all of the rights of married couples, but not the term "marriage." Although proponents of same-sex marriage were disappointed because, in their view, the law did not go far enough, social conservatives thought it went too far. A conservative organization called Protect Marriage Washington (PMW) accordingly sought the repeal of SB 5688 by referendum. PMW gathered 138,500 signatures of Washingtonians, a sufficient number to put Referendum 71 before the voters. Pursuant to Washington's Public Records Act, the petitions for a referendum—including the names and addresses of its signers—can be made available to the public. Thus, supporters of SB 5688 planned to post this information on their websites. Full Story from FindLaw: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20091116.html

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