U.S. Supreme Court Prevents Release of Referendum Petitions in Washington!

Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom
1 South 6th Street
Terre Haute, IN 47807-3510

PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday October 20, 2009
Contact: James Bopp, Jr.
Phone: 812/232-2434; Fax: 812/235-3685; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

U.S. Supreme Court Prevents Release of Referendum Petitions in Washington

Today, a full panel of the Supreme Court of the United States, in an 8-1 vote, issued an order preventing the Washington Secretary of State from releasing the names, addresses, and other personal information of over 138,000 individuals that signed a referendum petition that seeks to protect traditional marriage in Washington. The order will prevent several groups from making this personal information available on the internet and should protect the petition signers from the harassment similar to what occurred in California last November during the campaign surrounding Proposition 8.

James Bopp, Jr., lead counsel for Protect Marriage Washington, the group that had asked the Court to prevent the release of the names, stated, "The Supreme Court took a large step forward today in protecting the rights of citizens who support a traditional definition of marriage to speak freely. No citizen should ever have their personal property destroyed or receive death threats for exercising their right to engage in the political process. The First Amendment protects citizens from government compelled disclosure of their identity when they are engaged in political speech. The Supreme Court seems to recognize the gravity of this situation and we look forward to their review of the case on appeal."

On September 10, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued an order preventing the release of the names of the petition signers. On October 15, 2009, the Ninth Circuit issued a single page order allowing the release of the names. The Supreme Court's order will prevent the release of the names until Protect Marriage Washington has an opportunity to present their appeal to the Supreme Court.

James Bopp, Jr. has a national federal and state election law practice. He is General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech and former Co-Chairman of the Election Law Subcommittee of the Federalist Society.
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Mission

The mission of the new PAC is to organize the effort to gather the 120,577 required signatures for Referendum 71 by July 25, 2009 to bring the controversial Senate Bill 5688 before the voters of Washington State in November. SB 5688 is a 110 page document which includes the phrase "marriage shall apply equally to state registered domestic partnerships" 180 times.

 

SB 5688 was packaged and presented to the legislature as a Domestic Partnerships expansion of benefits. In truth, it will demolish the state's historical understanding and definition of marriage as that of uniting a man and a woman for life as Washington State will immediately become subject to litigation by same-sex partners demanding that the courts overturn the Defense of Marriage Act and impose "same-sex marriage" (as happened recently in California prior to Proposition 8).