[DesertRenegade]

On the face of this, is this blatant bias or what? Would they have allowed an avowed pedophile to rule in judgment in the Boy Scouts case? What about allowing a militant diesel dyke to rule in the case of a father trying to get child custody? Isn't bias supposed to be removed from the legal process?

[a fool in paradise]

He should recuse himself from the case. Conflict of interest.

[RobbyS]

I think it depends on his history as a judge.

[manc]

if a judge is going to benefit from his won decision then he should step down form the case.
this judge will and therefore should step down and why are we even talking about the judge , this should not even be in court and the judge should have said no the constitution states normal marriage now be gone with you and keep your sexual sick mind private

[SmithL]

From yesterday's Comicle: Judge being gay a nonissue during Prop. 8 trial

[corkoman]

Its one of those things that is not a straight-forward call. If he rules in favor of the gays he will immediately be assailed for bias.

He knows this. I say it is better to have this judge be gay as if he rules against the gays they cannot call him homophobe.

[Neoliberalnot]

I personally don’t think that sex-offenders and perverts should be judges.

[Abathar]

"No reason to stir more controversy into a case that will ultimately be settled at the Ninth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court."

Any bets now on how the Ninth will vote on this? I'm thinking it will be just another overturn waiting to happen when they rule for it.

[earlJam]

I don’t think we have enough information to make a judgment on this.

Should judges who smoke be barred from tobacco cases? Should Christian judges be barred from cases involving religious freedom?

The fact that he is gay should not affect the judges philosophy. (I agree that it might)

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I bet he likes being handed Briefs.

[longtermmemmory]

bias is to be removed but not “common sense”

the issue is defining what is “common sense” and in a debate where one of the issues is nature vs nurture definitions are very important.

No matter what this will be appealed.

The judge would be smart to stick to process rather than recreational mating issues.

[DakotaRed]

However this is ruled, you can bet it will be headed to the Supreme Court.

The danger here that I see is the anti-Prop 8 people’s argument seems centered around denying the vote because voters may have voted according to a religious belief.

No one can or should be able to ascertain why someone votes as they do.

Arguing this gay judge should not rule in this case would be tantamount to arguing that White Judges shouldn’t rule in cases involving Blacks, Hispanics or what have you.

Isn’t that exactly what we have argued against for so long?

[Publius6961]

The judge may have been assigned the case randomly but he could have and, I think, should have recused himself.

There are no "neutral" gays; just quiet ones and 'militant' ones.