28 U.S.C. sec. 144, captioned “Bias or prejudice of judge,” provides that under circumstances, when a party to a case in a United States District Court files a “timely and sufficient Motion that the judge before whom the matter is pending has a personal bias or prejudice either against him or in favor of an adverse party,” the case shall be transferred to another judge.
I guess you’ll have to ask ProtectMarriage why that motion was never filed.
I mean... I can tell you why it was not. Typically these things turn on financial conflicts. Here, you have a gay judge ruling on something that affects gay people... But to hear some tell it, this is the end of straight marriage. If that’s true, wouldn’t a straight judge be similarly biased? Is a black judge biased against a white defendant? or in favor of a black defendant? If you start reducing these things to the judge’s personal characteristics, it would never end.
That’s why, typically, these things are only really conflicts of interest when there is a financial or former fiduciary duty involved (e.g. where the judge was formerly a lawyer for a cause).