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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTONTACOMA
__________________________________________________________________
)
JOHN DOE, et al )
Plaintiffs ) No. 09 CV 05456 BHS
)
Vs. ) DECLARATION IN
) SUPPORT OF MOTION
SAM REED, et al ) TO INTERVENE
Respondents ) NOTE ON MOTION CALENDAR
) FOR September 3, 2009
__________________________________________________________________
Comes now Arthur West, and respectfully submits the Declaration below
and the attached Memorandum in support of his application to for leave to
intervene in this action:
DECLARATION
I, Arthur West, certify the following to be true.
Prior Restraint filed over a year ago (August 20, 2009) in Pierce County Superior
Court Cause No. 082043121. Although the first 4 pages of this memorandum
concern records (that are still, to this day) improperly withheld by the Port of
Tacoma under color of RCW 42.56, pages 515 are applicable to prior restraints
upon expression and publication generally, and therefore also to the prior restraint
issued by the District Court in this present case, which has as its central aim the
suppression of publication of the names of the individuals signing R71..
While no one can doubt the good faith and lawful intent of this Court
disclosure and publication of the names of individuals supporting a controversial
popular referendum, the fact remains that in seeking to forestall one type of private
evil, the court has unearthed a greater public evil, that of government censorship
and prior restraint.
Although it is (barely) conceivable that if the Court's order restraining
overzealous supporters of domestic partnership might seek to harass or annoy the
signers, it is the central tenet of our political order that such offenses be punished
individually in the criminal arena after they have manifested themselves in the real
world rather than being the subject of overbroad prior restraints that punish all of
our social order based upon mere conjecture and surmise.
Declaration establishing our democratic society, the right to petition has carried
with it the concomitant responsibility that one's exercise of the right be a public
and general concern. It is highly doubtful that Mr. Franklin, Adams, or Hancock,
(Who took care to sign his name roundly so that King George would not require his
spectacles to make it out) or any of the other signatories to the Declaration of
Independence would even been able to comprehend the idea of a personal privacy
right to conceal their participation in the inherently public process of exercising
their right to petition. Nor, it is safe to assume, would the Declaration of
Independence be entitled to the reverence and respect that it enjoys to this day had
it been signed by “John Doe and associates”
The first 4 pages of the attached Memorandum are also relevant to the
issue of the constitutional application of RCW 42.56 in the State Courts, in that,
although over a year has passed since the attached Memorandum was filed, the
Honorable Judge Fleming has declined to issue any form of ruling on the
provisions in Washington Law and the Washington State Constitution that require
Superior Court Judges to rule within 90 days, or forfeit their office.
Clearly, as applied in a venue mere blocks from this Federal Court,
RCW 42.56 is used to justify unconstitutional prior restraints even more egregious
than that improperly issued by this Court, and the State Court proceedings in the
absolutely no procedural safeguards to ensure that their restraints upon expression
and publication are promptlyor eversubject to a final review.
For the precise reason that it allows for prior restraints such as the
one improperly issued by this Court, but which (in the State Courts) are not subject
to any reasonable or timely review, RCW 42.56 is unconstitutional as applied.
I certify the foregoing to be correct and true. Done August 30, 2009.
. _____________
Arthur West