Supreme Court to hear case on releasing referendum petition signatures

It should be open-shut case. You signed a petition, which is not voting, so an ordinary person should be able to know who signed that petition. Other groups can do whatever they want with the names short of slander, libel, et cetera.

Additionally, I laughed out loud when I read "the right to 'Anonymous freedom of speech.'" That doesn't exist. How could you prove that someone was infringing on your right to anonymous free speech without proving that your name is on the petition.

My goodness. I was also thinking that the same people who signed the petition would also ask for the names of the, imaginary, petition to ban straight marriage. It always happens that way. Anti-Gay Rights groups are a mockery to civil rights.

 

Thanks for the clarification. That's insane.

 

Ummm....so what, they expected rocks thrown at them or something? Last I checked most gay rights groups are peaceful. We don't throw rocks at glass houses >_>

 

Remeber, with prop8 a elderly woman was terrorized by anti-prop8 queermosmexuals who sometimes in the dead quiet of night stole her pro prop8 sign. the anti equality people claimed that was proof that gay rights groups are violent gangsters waging a war of hurassment and intimidation.

Conservatives will go to any length to pretend they are the victims. While dozens of peaceful supporters of marriage equality were physically assulted, they ignored it, but the moment a single sign went missing, they called in the national guard.

 

Too true.

 

Anonymity can be vital to democracy and free speech, particularly when there is a threat of personal attack based upon one's views. While I personally disagree with the views of these religious conservatives, I respect their right to anonymous free speech.

That said, you are correct that an anonymous petition is worthless. You can't put forth the word "Anonymous" scribbled 138,000 times and expect people to take it seriously. Petitions are about expressing an opinion as an identifiable, publicly countable human being. It is not the same as voting.

 

the thing is, they have yet to prove that anti-equality people are being harmed or attacked in any way similer to how those same anti-equality people harm and attack others.

That there lives are in danger if the signatures are released is as valid as saying that their marriages will be nullified by force of law, and it will become illegal for straight people to marry when gays are allowed to.

Neither claim is valid, and they are actually in contradiction and defiance of the law as it now stands.

In california, they demanded and won the right to know the information of the people who donated to the group trying to stop prop 8's passage, and they sent threatening letters to the donors saying that they would release their personal contact information to the public and label them as supporters of perversion if they did not give a equal or greater ammount to yes on 8.

Just because they did it, doesnt mean people who are simply fighting for their constitutional right to equality will sink to their level.