Superior Court Justice Donald Alexander pulled off a deft piece of jurisprudence Tuesday when he ruled that petitions for a medical marijuana referendum, though late, must be processed.

Now it’s up to Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky to turn in some solid secretary of stating — drop any notion of an appeal.

The medical marijuana folks, as Justice Alexander noted, are blameless. They followed both the letter and spirit of the law, collecting more than 51,000 signatures and turning their petitions in to municipal offices before the deadline. The city of Portland committed the foul by failing to verify the 2,516 signatures of its residents in time, signatures that could make the difference in whether the referendum goes forward.

Justice Alexander made three important points in his ruling: The petitioners must not be punished for the city’s failure to carry out its duties; the state’s interests are not harmed by extending the deadline; violations of constitutional guarantees must have a remedy.

Immediately after the ruling, Gwadosky worried about setting a precedent and talked about an appeal.

There is a precedent to worry about, but it’s not the one concerning the sanctity of petition deadlines. The bigger issue is the sanctity of the citizenry’s right to petition its government.

Everyone seems to agree Portland dropped the ball with no malice in its heart. It was merely a combination of lousy weather, the pressure of preparing for the Feb. 10 gay-rights vote and general inattention to detail. That’s fine, and Portland City Hall does not get away unpunished — it’s been the subject of critical media coverage, it’s the butt of town office jokes from Kittery to Fort Kent, it received a thorough scolding from Alexander.

If the choice is between whether deadlines can be fudged by a few days or whether municipal employees can subvert the citizen initive process by letting petitions gather dust, the choice is easy. This time it was a mistake, or a series of mistakes. Next time it could be deliberate. Municipal employees have enough to do without taking on the job of deciding what goes to referendum and what does not.