The U.S. Supreme Court’s most conservative judge, Justice Antonin Scalia, was on the side of gay rights Wednesday during a hearing concerning whether an anti-gay group in Washington has the protected rights to keep names of petition signers out of public records.
During the hearings Wednesday, attorney James Bopp, representing Protect Marriage Washington, argued that releasing the names of voters who signed a petition to reverse an “Everything but Marriage” domestic partners law passed in 2009, could be in risk of facing harassment from people with opposing views and could infringe on the voter’s 1st Amendment rights.
Justice Scalia didn’t buy the argument.
“The First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate, or to take part in the legislative process,” Scalia said during oral arguments.
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