Echoing Secret’s comments. A municipal judge is a political animal and all but the most secure will carefully weigh political as well as judicial factors. I’m not familiar with that locale in specific so I can’t judge (npi) how courageous a stand this might be, but I suspect he stuck his neck out a bit.
Well, he knows people were watching the case. He did research the laws on the books, and addressed the constutional issues. rarely do these kinds of cases happen in municipal courts, and since he knows it will probably continue past his court, he wants to do the best job he can and give good reasoning for it because higher courts are going to be looking at his reasoning and verdict. If you’re a lower court judge and expect the case to be appealed, you don’t want to have the higher courts saying ‘you were wrong’ and overturning your verdict because you didn’t do your job, making you look incompetent.