U.S. court has it right

Expected this fall is a West Virginia Supreme Court decision on whether petitions, like those calling for zoning elections, are public documents.
Unbelievably, the Jefferson County Clerk’s office refused the Shepherdstown Observer’s request to look at the signatures on the petitions that forced a vote on zoning law changes there last year. And a circuit judge upheld the clerk’s refusal to show the petitions, saying the petitions were private since they were prepared by private citizens.

Of course, such a ruling puts all sorts of public documents in limbo.
We hope the State Supreme Court follows the path of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. In Doe v. Reed, The top U.S. court upheld a Washington state law authorizing public disclosure of names on petitions.

Citizens certainly have a right to know who is petitioning and lobbying their government. There’s enough backroom dealing without taking away that right.