Petition privacy case

I promised you something a bit more political this time? Maybe I didn’t.

Currently in front of the supreme court is a case about withholding the names of some 138,500 names of people who signed a petition to overturn the same-sex marriage law in the state of Washington.

Under the state’s Public Record’s act, this information is public record, but it seems journalism ethics are more discerning. Those ethics state that someone already in the public eye can’t expect the same amount of privacy as a private individual. Government officals shouldn’t be allowed to rule in secret.

On the other hand, I understand the need to validate names on a petition. We don’t want scammers ruling the populace.

But I don’t think a blanket ruling is good in every case. If I were signing a petition to secede against the British government, I wouldn’t want to be known.