Too Much Free Speech?

Chapter 5. The Secret Ballot: Voting as Speech: Doe v. Reed, 130 S. Ct. 2811 (2010)

ChAPTER FIVE The Secret Ballot voting as speech Doe v. Reed, 130 S. Ct. 2811 (2010) On January 28, 2009, Senator Ed Murray led a group of Washington State senators in introducing Senate Bill 5688, a piece of legislation that would come to be known as the “Everything but Marriage Bill.” The bill’s statement of purpose declared: “It is the intent of the legislature that for all purposes under state law, state registered domestic partners shall be treated the same as married spouses. . . . The provisions of this act shall be liberally construed to achieve equal treatment, to the extent not in conflict with federal law, of state registered domestic partners and married spouses.” Following a contentious legislative battle, the bill was enacted. When Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed S.B. 5688 into law on May 18,2009, she portrayed it as the natural conclusion to several years worth of legislative progress. “From the first bill I signed in 2007 to today’s bills,” Gregoire explained, “we have proudly made immeasurable strides on behalf of LGBT individuals and families. [S.B. 5688] represents the culmination of incredible work to treat all Washingtonians equally.” In the weeks prior to Governor Gregoire’s signing, as S.B. 5688 made its way through the state senate and house, opponents rallied in opposition. The most vocal critics of the bill were two political action committees: the Washington Values Alliance (WVA) and Protect Marriage Washington (PMW). Prior to S.B. 5688, the Washington Values Alliance had promoted several less-controversial conservative causes, including supporting legislation restricting minors’ access to pornography and tightening scrutiny on minors seeking abortions. Protect Marriage Washington, conversely, was established exclusively to combat S.B. 5688. Its stated goal was to gather the signatures necessary to place a public referendum overturning S.B. 5688 on the November 2009 ballot. The public referendum initiative, which became Referendum 71,was intended to give Washington voters the chance to uphold or reject S.B. 5688. If a petition on S.B. 5688 received enough signatures—about 120,000—S.B . 5688 would be suspended as law and its approval by referendum of all voters would be required for it to take legal effect. In pressing forward with the referendum, PMW and the WVA built upon the arguments posed in similar fights in Massachusetts and California, insisting that the passage of S.B. 5688 would dilute marriage and create a “genderless society” that would be thrust on children at an early age, primarily through school curricula focused on homosexual relationships. The common thread between the WVA and PMW was a conservative political activist named Larry Stickney, who served as the campaign manager for Protect Marriage Washington and as the president of the Washington Values Alliance. Stickney’s centrality in the two organizations is hard to overstate—he often operated as the sole spokesperson for the PMW and was the dominant board member of the WVA. As his organizations marshaled support for R-71,Stickney was also hosting the Values Action Radio Show, a weekly broadcast on the Liberty Broadcasting System. With Stickney’s organizations garnering media attention and attracting followers, gay-rights groups responded with their own campaigns supporting S.B. 5688 and opposing R-71. A group called Washington Families Standing Together (WFST) launched an effort to counteract PMW’s campaign . WFST was founded primarily through the efforts of Anne Levinson , the former deputy mayor of Seattle and a prominent Seattle businesswoman . WFST distributed flyers and info sheets and held gatherings and events intended to persuade voters to vote to uphold S.B. 5688 by voting yes on R-71. WSFT was quickly joined by national organizations, most notably KnowThyNeighbor, which was founded in 2005 by Aaron Toleos and Tom Lang. KnowThyNeighbor grew out of the gay-rights debate in Massachusetts and then joined the ranks of similar fights in other states, including Florida, Oregon, and Arkansas. The most aggressive opponents of Stickney’s movement, however, were the members of a grassroots organization called WhoSigned. On June 1, WhoSigned formally requested the list of R-71petition signatories from the secretary of state, maintaining that once it received the list, it would make the names searchable and flag the names that were unverifiable or erroneously included in order to allow Washington State voters to check to see whether 184 . iv. voting as speaking their names had been incorrectly included and, if such was the...