The right to petition government has been enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution since 1791, but the White House is creating a new tool it hopes will bring the process into the 21st century. On its blog Thursday, the White House announced a new Web page going live "soon" that will allow people to create petitions, and invited them to register to be alerted once it's live.
"We're announcing We the People before it's live to give folks time to think about what petitions they want to create and how they are going to build the support to get a response," the blog said. Over the centuries, petitions have played a role, the White House pointed out, in everything from abolishing slavery to securing women's right to vote.
Anyone 13 or older will be eligible to create or sign a petition on the new page, after registering and creating an account using a verified email address. Then, people are encouraged to spread the word by sharing a petition's URL via social media, email and other channels. Before they can be searchable on Whitehouse.gov, petitions must have at least 150 signatures.
Once a petition meets the minimum requirement of 5,000 signatures in 30 days, the administration says it will review it and issue an official response.
In a statement, President Obama said the initiative is about "giving Americans a direct line to the White House on the issues and concerns that matter most to them."
Initial responses on Twitter included a mixture of skepticism and inquisitiveness, with a dash of enthusiasm.
"How will online ID be handled? How will @WhiteHouse authenticate citizens to e-petition govt?" one tweeter asked.
"Very necessary!" cheered another.
Still another asked how the White House would use the email addresses gathered via petitions and noted that advocacy groups "will have to decide whether to send their people to whitehouse.gov at the expense of their own list building."
To read more about the program, register for an alert or watch a video explaining how the new Web page will work, click here. You can also join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #WHWeb or posing questions to @macon44.
UPDATE: As of Sept. 22, the site is now live.
