Federal judge: Make public anti-gay petitions

[n2doc]

Voter petitions that put anti-gay Referendum 71 on the ballot must be made public by the Secretary of State’s office, a federal judge in Tacoma ruled on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that the group Protect Marriage Washington is not entitled to an exemption from the state’s Public Records Act. The case, Doe v. Reed, earlier reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Doe (plaintiffs) has only supplied evidence that hurts rather than helps its case,” Judge Settle, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his ruling.

Referendum 71 was an effort to roll back the state’s domestic partnership, aka “everything but marriage,” law defining rights of same-sex couples. The state voted in 2009 to affirm and keep the law in place.


The Supreme Court sided with those who wanted the petitions released, but sent the case back to Judge Settle for evaluation of specific claims made by plaintiffs.

more

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/10/17/make-public-anti-gay-petitions-federal-judge/

[yardwork]

1. Good. But they still haven't released any of the signatures.

The bigots are losing court cases about this all over the country, but they simply appeal and keep things tied up in court. Maybe with this decision Washington will be compelled to release the names. I suspect that a lot of them are fake.