Brad Shannon:
The Politics Blog

Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.

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R-71 foes taking signature fight to U.S. Supreme Court

• Published October 17, 2009

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That's the latest last evening from Gary Randall, leader of the Faith & Freedom Network who also is a leader in the Protect Marriage Washington campaign.

The gay rights opponents want the U.S. Supreme Court to step in after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ordered the Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed to release the signatures and names of Referendum 71 signers.

A Seattle man who supports the domestic-partnership rights of R-71 wants to publish the names on a website, whosigned.com. The R-71 campaign says it does not condone that action, and Reed�s office has said the same; but state elections officials contend the signatures petitions are public records and have been treated as such for several years.

It was Randall and fellow conservatives who collected the signatures to put R-71 on the ballot, forcing a public vote on the Legislature's expansion of domestic partnership rights to include all rights of marriage, except marriage itself.

Here's part of what Randall is saying:

I received an email from attorney James Bopp, Jr. this afternoon, filling us in on some further developments on R-71.

He said the three-member panel was very liberal leaning and sometimes hostile toward our positions. Not a big surprise.

Attorney Bopp is taking the matter to the Supreme Court and has contacted Justice Kennedy. As I am typing this update, I just received an email telling us that Justice Kennedy has called for a response to the application to vacate the stay. The response is due Monday, October 19. This is very positive. The vast majority of times the application is denied without requiring a response.

I cannot give more detail, but we all want you to know we are doing everything humanly possible to protect your rights and freedoms to participate in the election process with out the fear of retribution.

There is another action item in play this weekend that I cannot discuss publicly at the moment, however, it will play out over the next couple of days.

If that is true, it will wreak havoc on efforts by Reed to ask a Thurston County judge to also release the signatures. Reed's office has been hoping to move forward Tuesday in the signatures saga for both R-71 and for initiative promoter Tim Eyman's effort to block the release of signatures for 11 other ballot measures.

Earlier this week, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks ordered Reed's office to hold off releasing signatures for initiatives or referenda, pending resolution of the issue in federal courts and pending arguments in his court.