Round two in the legal fight on whether names of Referendum 71 petition signers should be made public began today with a federal judge ordering the identities be kept secret for at least a few more months.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle issued an order preventing the release of the 138,000 names and set in motion a process that could culminate in more court action this fall.

Protect Marriage Washington, sponsors of the initiative, are out to prove that releasing names of the signers will make them all vulnerable to harassment by political opponents.

The Arlington group will be prepare a list of witnesses to submit affidavits detailing threats they received after it became known they had either signed the referendum petition or donated to the campaign. These witnesses will be deposed by lawyers in the state Attorney General’s Office in advance of a possible trial in November.

The list “could be as many as 138,000 names,” said Stephen Pidgeon of Everett, the attorney who represented the group in court today.

Attorneys for the state opposed Settle continuing to ban release of the names.

The state strongly objected to maintaining the temporary restraining order, arguing there is no current showing of a risk of harm to anyone therefore the public records should be released, according to a statement issued by David Ammons, communications director for Secretary of State Sam Reed.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that generally, the release of petition signatures does not violate constitutional rights. The high court left the door open for Protect Marriage Washington to try to prove the release of the names of people who signed Referendum 71 would put them in danger.