In a ruling that will surprise exactly nobody, the Prop 8 legal team’s hail mary pass fell incomplete nowhere near the closest receiver:
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to invalidate last year’s ruling against Proposition 8, deciding the gay jurist who overturned the same-sex marriage ban had no obligation to step aside because of a possible conflict of interest.
The decision by Chief Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco left the ruling by retired Judge Vaughn R. Walker in place. Walker’s decision remains on hold pending a separate appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. (LA Times)
I suppose this means that we’ll not need to probe the minds of every individual judge on every civil rights case to determine who is the most “unbiased.” I’m thinking they could have hired Spock to mind meld with every judge upon confirmation.
UPDATE: Check the full decision here: Denial of Motion to Vacate 06-14-2011, but suffice it to say that Judge Ware didn’t find too much of the proponents argument convincing.
at best. What was especially gratifying about the opinion was its rejection of the argument that because Judge Walker was a member of the minority that would benefit from the vindication of equal protection in the case, he actually had more to gain than the majority. As the court pointed out, however, all of society gains from the triumph of equal protection, though evidently the Prop H8ers still have to learn that lesson.