re-dos

Supreme Court Said Protect Marriage Washington Must Release Ref 71’s Names. Oh, This Isn’t Over?

When the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 last month Gary Randall and Larry Stickney’s Protect Marriage Washington must turn over the 138,000 names that helped put Referendum 71 on Washington State’s ballot, because doing so would not violate anybody’s First Amendment rights, the justices said the group could still block the release with a narrow exception. Which is exactly what they’re trying to do in court right now.

Doe v. Reed may have reached the nation’s top court, but PMW’s attorney James Bopp Jr. (pictured) is taking it back to federal Judge Benjamin Settle, who in September granted PMW’s request to block the legally mandated disclosure, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Dave Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, said Tuesday the new federal court motion asks for either a preliminary injunction against releasing the petitions or a temporary restraining order for the same purpose.

[…] Deputy Solicitor General Bill Collins, who is representing the Secretary of State in the ongoing Doe v. Reed litigation, reports that U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle has dismissed all pending motions in the R-71 public records case. He will await the official paperwork from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding its recent 8-1 opinion in the case and transferring jurisdiction back to his courtroom. At that point, Protect Marriage Washington will be able to re-file fresh motions to block release of the R-71 petitions.

Which means, for now, the names remain secret. They should’ve just written them down in disappearing ink and saved us all the trouble.

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