Friday, October 16, 2009

Liberals hate free speech


...also privacy rights and the sanctity of our entire political process. But who's counting?

A federal appeals court says Washington's secretary of state can release of names and addresses of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on the state's expanded benefits for domestic partners.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday issued an order reversing a decision from U.S. District Judge Ben Settle in Tacoma, who held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers.

And before you try tell me they only want to uphold the integrity of the process, note the topmost reason WhoSigned.org lists for doing this:
"When signatures for Referendum 71 have been verified WhoSigned.Org will: Work to make this public record signature information accessible and searchable on the internet."
Hmmm...

On the news this morning they said the right to contact the signers of this petition was also being sought.

Double hmmm...

I'm guessing "right to contact" means more Prop 8-style, gay-mob beat-downs of elderly women. But don't quote me on that... I have a wife and children to think about.