R-71: Thurston jurist green-lights Nov. 3 vote
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee has given a go-ahead for a statewide vote Nov. 3 on Washington’s new “everything but marriage” law expanding benefits for state-registered domestic partners. McPhee dismissed a challenge brought by supporters of the law, Washington Families Standing Together. In a lengthy statement delivered from the bench following wide-ranging oral arguments, the judge fully sided with the Secretary of State’s handling of signature-checks for Referendum 71 and dismissed all of the points made by the…