Posted on 06/13/2011 10:22:44 AM PDT by SmithL
Follow Howard Mintz's live blog on this morning's arguments in the Proposition 8 case.
9:58 a.m.: Attorney says Prop 8 backers were entitled to an "impartial tribunal"
Judge James Ware has started the argument over Judge Walker's alleged bias by disclosing that he once presided over a same-sex marriage during the brief period that it was legalized in California before Prop. 8's passage by the voters, although he insisted he did not believe it would impact his ability to consider today's issues. Charles Cooper, Prop. 8's lawyer, appeared to agree, passing up any chance to bump Ware and launching into his argument that Walker had an obligation to disclose his same-sex relationship before ruling in the Prop. 8 trial.
Cooper said he was raising the issue "awkwardly," but argued that the Prop. 8 forces were entitled to an "impartial tribunal."
Ware is asking about whether Walker's relationship amounted to a "substantial interest" in the Prop. 8 outcome.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
http://www.mercurynews.com/samesexmarriage/ci_18259914Battle over Proposition 8 judge's same-sex relationship heads to court
For years, former San Francisco Chief Judge Vaughn Walker has maintained a same-sex relationship with a doctor, attending court functions with him and hardly treating it as a secret within the Bay Area legal community.
But despite his high-profile career as a federal judge, Walker kept his private life private to the general public, at least until he was thrust into handling the historic legal challenge to Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. And now Walker's personal life and relationship are front and center at another pivotal stage in the Proposition 8 legal saga.
In a hearing Monday morning, new Chief Judge James Ware will consider a bid by Proposition 8's sponsors to set aside Walker's August 2010 ruling striking down the state's gay marriage ban. The measure's lawyers argue that Walker was presumed biased at the time he invalidated the law because of his long-term same-sex relationship, and that he should have stepped aside when he was randomly assigned the case.
The argument is widely considered a long shot by legal experts, but it has injected more venom into the debate over Proposition 8's legality.
Denying that they are simply targeting Walker because he is gay, Proposition 8 backers insist the judge had a strong interest in the outcome of the case because invalidating the law could someday allow him to marry his partner. "Such a personal interest in his own marriage would place Chief Judge Walker in precisely the same shoes as the two couples who brought the case," they wrote in court papers.
lawyers have a very difficult time challenging a judge’s impartiality because judges DO retaliate and judges DO protect their own.
“lawyers have a very difficult time challenging a judges impartiality because judges DO retaliate and judges DO protect their own.”
Maybe that is why lawyers rarely run for election against an incumbent judge. Who would hire a lawyer who is hated by judges?
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Info on Prop 8 hearing
Not holding my breath, but wouldn’t it be great if this big circus of a “trial” got flushed because of Walkers bias? What would the pervertphiles do then?
What would they do? Why all the little Mary Sunshines would just stomp their feet and CRY! ;-)
this has been decided twice to hell with the homosexual judge who stands to gain from their own decision.
yet again the homostapo throw their bottles out of their prams because people do not want their sick perversion pushed onto them
then let the little baby temper tantrum throwers move to HI
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