Washington Attorney General to appeal ruling that blocked release of R-71 signatures

9/11/09-by Paula Brooks
The Washington State Attorney Generals Office said today it will appeal yesterday’s ruling by a federal judge that blocked the release of names of people who signed Referendum 71, the effort to overturn the Washington ’s new “everything but marriage” same-sex domestic partner law.

Janelle Guthrie, spokeswoman for Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, said that an appeal would be made to 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and that the state will be requesting an expedited review and a stay of the injunction that is keeping the names from being made public.

The petitions are considered public records under Washington law and therefore could normally be released to the public.

The group Protect Marriage Washington, which collected the signatures, said their supporter of the referendum could be harassed, amounting to an infringement on their free speech rights.

U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle, a Bush appointee, agreed with Protect Marriage Washington in his ruling yesterday and said that that releasing the names could indeed violate the First Amendment rights of those who signed petitions to get R-71 on the ballot.

However the Washington secretary of state’s office slammed the ruling, saying it was “a step away from open government,” and asked the Attorney General’s Office to appeal the ruling.