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Rights Online  SCOTUS Rules Petiton Signatures Are Public Record
780  Posted by kdawson from the stand-behind-your-john-hancock
dept. Reader SheeEttin reminds us that back in October, the
Supreme Court accepted a case testing whether or not petition
signers' names could be kept anonymous. (The premise was that
the act of signing a petition is covered by free speech, and
thus signers are entitled to anonymity, especially to protect
them from harassment.) Now the Court has issued its ruling:
signatures are part of the public record. "By a strong majority
Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a setback for opponents of
gay marriage who wanted to keep their identities secret. The
justices favored transparency over privacy in a case testing
whether signing a petition is a public act. The case began with
a bill that the Washington state legislature passed in 2009,
expanding the state's domestic partnership law. The new
referendum was known as 'everything but