PDN news sources
The identities of those who signed petitions to get Referendum 71 on the Nov. 3 ballot will not be known until far beyond the election, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today.
The court ordered that signatures collected to get R-71 on the ballot should continue to be sealed until the court decides whether it will hear an appeal in the case — a process that could take up to a year.
The 8-to-1 decision by the high court continues an order issued Monday by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had temporarily blocked a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordering release of the names. The plaintiffs seeking to keep the names secret — a group calling itself Protect Marriage — fear that revelation of the names could subject the petition-signers to harassment from backers of R-71.
R-71, if approved, would uphold the Legislature’s expansion of the state’s domestic-partnership law, granting marriage-like state benefits to registered gay and heterosexual senior-citizen couples.
