A Thurston County judge doesn’t plan to hear arguments until next week at the earliest on whether he should let the state release the names of people who signed petitions forcing a public vote on Washington’s expanded domestic partnership benefits.
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed a federal court injunction that blocked the release. But an order issued by Thurston County Judge Richard Hicks remains in effect, and the secretary of state can’t release the Referendum 71 petitions until he gives the OK.
His assistant, Debbie Requa, says he won’t hold a hearing on the issue until Monday at the earliest. And, she says, he would like to see the full reasoning of the 9th Circuit’s decision beforehand — so far the appeals court has only said that the wrong legal standard was applied in the federal case.
Sponsors of R-71 say they are trying to keep the names secret because they fear harassment by gay-rights supporters.
“We’re going to appeal on the grounds that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals got it wrong,” said Stephen Pidgeon, attorney for Protect Marriage Washington which sponsored the referendum and sued to keep names of petition signers secret.
Pidgeon, who works in Everett, said the challenge would go to a panel of up to 11 of the circuit’s appellate justices. Thursday’s order was issued by three members.
Larry Stickney of Arlington, the organization’s leader, said he was disappointed but not surprised.
“We still think we’re right and we’ll win this in the long run,” he said.
Six individuals and a Seattle television station have requested the names. Of those, four have paid the Secretary of State’s Office and will be the first to receive the information if it becomes available.
Recipients will get a disk containing a scanned image of each of the 9,359 petitions submitted.
The leader of a group intending to post the names online said it could take several weeks to get all the names entered into a searchable database.
“It’s extremely labor intensive,” said Brian Murphy of WhoSigned.org in Seattle. “Realistically, we will not be publishing until after the election.”
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