Scalia: Democracy not for the “touchy, feely”Judging by the justices, the arguments by those opposed to disclosure of signatories of Referendum 71 did not stir much sympathy in the U.S. Supreme Court today. As conservative Justice Antonin Scalia put it to Jim Bopp Jr., lawyer for Washington State signers of the anti-gay rights petition, “Running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage. The First Amendment does not protect you from civic discourse — or even from nasty phone calls.”Update: According to the full transcript from today’s hearing, Bopp argued that petition signers could be harmed if their names were known and that Ref. 71’s campaign manager had to have his “family sleep in the living room” (?) because of threats. Said Scalia: “The threats should be moved against vigorously, but just because there can be criminal activity doesn’t mean that you – you have to eliminate a procedure that is otherwise perfectly reasonable” – seemingly dismissing the opponents’ most viable argument.Veteran court observer Lyle Dennison says Scalia led the Supremes’ charge. Using history, sarcasm and political taunts, Scalia:…laid down a barrage of objections Wednesday to a plea that the Supreme Court create a new constitutional right of anonymity for individuals who sign petitions to get policy measures onto election ballots. When he was finished, the strong impression was that it might be exceedingly hard to gather a five-vote majority to establish such a right, even though the plea got the fervent support of Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and some implied help from Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr…Declaring that the rough-and-tumble of democracy is not for the faint-hearted – what Scalia referred to as the “touchy, feely” sensitivity of some political activists – the Justice said “you can’t run a democracy” with political activity behind a First Amendment shroud.The McClatchy Newsapers’ Les Blumenhal also reports from the court that “justices from the left and the right seemed downright skeptical,” similar to what the AP thought of the justices’ questioning. A decision will come later.