U.S. Judge Overturns Prop. 8 In Gay Rights Victory : The Two-Way : NPR

prop 8 gay judge

Backers of California's anti-gay marriage iative, Prop. 8, argued that the judge who clared the law unnstutnal should not have taken the se bee he is gay. A feral judge rejected that argument Tuday.

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PROP 8 LG EXPLAED: WHY GAY MARRIAGE WILL RUME CALIFORNIA

Retired feral Judge Vghn Walker set the California gay marriage ban on s way to the Supreme Court wh his lg 2010. On Wednday, the high urt kept his cisn tact. Walker shar his sight to the jtic' strategy and the ntroversy he's wad through as a gay judge. * prop 8 gay judge *

The Supreme Court lg on a California law known as Proposn 8 me down to a legal technily but has huge practil effect — rtorg gay marriage the natn’s most populo urt led that proponents of Proposn 8, a ban on gay marriage passed by California voters 2008, did not have the legal right to fend the law the feral Jtice John Roberts, wrg for the urt, said that the proponents — the people who put Proposn 8 on the ballot — had no “personal stake” fendg , at least no more than other ordary cizens of California. To have a se, the standard says, you have to show California Supreme Court led May 2008 that gay upl had a right to marry.

Six months later, Proposn 8 passed wh 52 percent of the vote, haltg gay marriage gay upl then sued feral urt to overturn the ban. The Supreme Court said Wednday that they had no lg was important not jt for what did — clear the way for the rumptn of gay marriage California — but for what didn’t do.

The urt ma no lg on whether there is a nstutnal right to gay marriage.

JUDGE STRIK DOWN PROP. 8, ALLOWS GAY MARRIAGE CALIFORNIA

* prop 8 gay judge *

”The lg was much narrower than the other major Supreme Court cisn on Wednday, which held that gay upl who are legally married their stat are entled to feral benefs. Gav Newsom told NBC News that gay marriage would rume California wh 30 days.

PROP. 8 LG: GAY JUDGE DIDN'T NEED TO RECE HIMSELF

After judge who stck down gay marriage ban adms to beg gay, Prop 8 supporters say 's new grounds for appeal * prop 8 gay judge *

Opponents of gay marriage took heart potg out that the urt was clearly leavg to dividual stat to fe marriage. “The battle is gog to ntue to be fought out at the stat as we fully expected, ” said John Eastman, chairman of the Natnal Organizatn for Marriage, the leadg group opposed to gay marriage. Judge Vghn Walker stck down California's proposn banng gay marriage 2010.

In short, if the urt had led directly on the qutn of whether stat act nstutnally banng gay marriage, the answer would have been no. " Takg The Case Judg the feral urts are assigned s at random, so when California's ban on same-sex marriage was assigned to Walker, he nfs that did give him a moment's pse, bee Walker is gay. Ined, when the lawyers supportg the ban on gay marriage were asked if they planned to raise as an issue, they said no.

GROUP ALLEG CONFLICT OF INTERT FOR GAY JUDGE IN PROP. 8 BATTLE

Once upon a time, gay activists hated Vghn Walker for legally squashg the Gay Olympics. But this weekend The San Francis Chronicle fively revealed that the Prop. 8 judge is gay. * prop 8 gay judge *

Walker says he always knew the challenge to the Proposn 8 ban on gay marriage would be a se of great nsequence.

He was opposed back then by gay-rights groups and their supporters bee, as a lawyer, he had reprented the Internatnal Olympic Commtee and the U. Olympic Commtee a succsful tramark su that forced the Gay Olympics to drop the word "Olympics" om s tle.

GAY JUDGE IS THE FOC OF PROP 8 APPEAL

Gay-marriage opponents prott after 's nfirmed that the judge who overturned California's gay-marriage ban is himself gay * prop 8 gay judge *

Reportg om San Francis and Los Angel — The feral judge who overturned Proposn 8 Wednday said the ballot iative that banned same-sex marriage was based on moral disapproval of gay marriage and orred the state to stop enforcg the ban. The lg stck down Proposn 8 as a vlatn of feral nstutnal guarante of equal protectn and due ced extensive trial evince to support his fdg that there was not even a ratnal basis for excludg gays and lbians om marriage. The cisn would appear to lay any rumptn of gay marriage the state.

“For the hundreds of thoands of Californians gay and lbian hoeholds who are managg their day-to-day liv, this cisn affirms the full legal protectns and safeguards I believe everyone serv, ” the ernor said.

THE PROP 8 JUDGE IS GAY, AND IT DON'T MATTER

Opponents of gay marriage are challengg notns of judicial ntraly a San Francis urtroom on Monday. They're argug that a feral judge who stck down California's ban on same-sex marriage last year was biased bee he's a same-sex relatnship. * prop 8 gay judge *

Supporters of Proposn 8 argued durg the trial that same-sex marriage would unrme the stutn of marriage and that children fare bt wh both a mother and a challengers prented wns who ced studi that showed children reared om birth by gay and lbian upl do as well as children born to oppose-sex fai.

They also ttified that the clamor for marriage the gay muny had given the stutn of marriage greater trial appeared to be a lopsid show for the challengers, who lled 16 wns, cludg rearchers om the natn’s top universi, and prented tearful ttimony om gays and lbians about why marriage mattered to backers of Proposn 8 lled only two wns, and both ma ncsns unr cross-examatn that helped the other sponsors plaed that Walker’s pretrial lgs had been unfair and that some of their prospective wns cid not to ttify out of fear for their Walker led that he would broadst portns of the trial on the Inter, Proposn 8 proponents fought him all the way to the U. Wednday’s lg stemmed om a lawsu filed last year by two homosexual upl who argued that the marriage ban vlat their feral nstutnal rights to equal protectn and due anticipatn of a California Supreme Court lg upholdg Proposn 8, the su was the brachild of a gay polil strategist Los Angel who formed a nonprof to fance the group hired two legal lumari om oppose sis of the polil spectm to try to overturn the ballot measure. Supreme Court might le agast marriage rights and create a precent that uld take s to after the su was filed, gay rights lawyers flocked to support , filg iend-of-urt arguments on why Proposn 8 should be Arnold Schwarzenegger and Atty.

THE PROP 8 JUDGE IS GAY: DO MATTER?

A US judge refed to vate a cisn last year that clared California's anti-gay marriage Proposn 8 unnstutnal. 8 had wanted the cisn thrown out on the grounds that the judge who ma the cisn is gay and therefore should have reced himself om the se.

U.S. JUDGE OVERTURNS PROP. 8 IN GAY RIGHTS VICTORY

Chief US District Judge Jam Ware said that requirg a gay judge to rece himself om a se about gay marriage would have set a dangero precent. 8, argued that expectg judg to reveal portns of their private liv when hearg gay-rights s uld open a Pandora's box.

HEARG OPENS ON A GAY JUDGE'S PROP. 8 DECISN

“What would a judge who had a nephew or niece or son or dghter who was gay or lbian do? "If the argument is valid that Walker necsarily acted out of self tert bee he was a long-term, same-sex relatnship, follows also that a married, heterosexual judge would also act of self-tert [to protect heterosexual marriage] and would have to be disqualified, ” says Jim Carroll, terim executive director of Equaly California, a nonpartisan group which works to secure legal protectns for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people.

WHEN A GAY JUDGE RUL ON GAY RIGHTS

“To vate Walker’s cisn would have meant dismissg all the legal arguments his 135-page cisn for the sole reason that he is gay. LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Backers of the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage California are shiftg their legal strategy after revelatns that the judge who stck down the measure last summer is homosexual. Walker, a 67-year-old Republin appotee, clared Proposn 8 to be an unnstutnal vlatn of gay Californians' civil rights.

He also orred the state to stop enforcg the gay marriage ban, but the 9th Circu put his orr on hold while the se is on appeal. Walker, a 67-year-old Republin appotee, clared Proposn 8 to be an unnstutnal vlatn of gay Californian's civil rights last summer.

Rumors that the judge was gay circulated durg the 13-day trial that preced his cisn and after he hand down his lg. The issue is not that Walker is gay, but that his relatnship stat ma him too siar to the same-sex upl who sued for the right to marry, Pugno said. Once upon a time, gay activists hated Vghn Walker for legally squashg the Gay Olympics.

GAY JUDGE'S RULG ON PROP. 8 UPHELD

Appoted to the bench by the first Print Bh 1989, he spent his early reer battlg the perceptn that he was anti-gay after he reprented the U. Olympic Commtee a tramark gement battle wh San Francis's Gay Olympics.

" (Puttg a lien on the Gay Olympics' AIDS-ravaged lear durg the man's dyg days didn't help. ) Walker had "no ment" on Chronicle polil gossip duo Matier and Ross' qutn about his sexualy, but did note that "Life is full of irony" when they brought up the Gay Olympics bacle. Matier and Ross' headle is both report and ncln: "Judge Beg Gay a Nonissue Durg Prop.

A funnier explanatn for the relative quiet—that the right-wg bulli who ually drive a story like this forward simply don't read the San Francis Chronicle or gay blogs like Queerty, which has been reportg this story for months—is perhaps slowed the Brebartian bullhorns, too. There is no reason to believe he'd change now—if anythg, the Gay Olympics bacle monstrated an impervns to public prsure.

CALIFORNIA JUDGE UPHOLDS A RULG ON GAY MARRIAGE

8, the homophob will have their big, nasty appeal primed and ready. Assumg gay judg always si wh other gays (or "Wise Latas" wh other Latas) is a flawed logic that assum ntraly li wh heterosexuals (or wh, or mal).

Sexualy and inty are pable; you uld jt as easily argue that a straight judge will be biased bee all straights secretly fear gays. Or that a straight judge wh a gay child would be the most biased.

Also, if you wre a law that so offends an entire class of people that you nnot tst them ever to discs fairly, then perhaps there is somethg wrong wh your Chron: Beg Gay a Nonissue Durg Prop.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* PROP 8 GAY JUDGE

Gay Judge's Rulg on Prop. 8 Upheld | U.S. News .

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