Academic

Hasen on Doe v. Reed

By Lawrence Solum

In broad brush strokes, the Court did what I predicted they would do: a broad majority voted that disclosure of the names of the signers of referendum petitions is generally constitutional, leaving open the possibility of an as-applied challenge should plaintiffs be able to prove on remand that they faced a realistic threat of harassment in this particular case if their names are disclosed. Though it was 8-1, Justice Alito's concurrence was almost a dissent, as I'll discuss more below. But the Court's set of opinions is fascinating. Here we have an 8-1 decision with 7 opinions: only Justices Ginsburg and Kennedy did not write separately. I want to talk about why that is, and also about some other fascinating pieces of the opinion.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on June 25, 2010 (boomark / email).